Appleby Horse Fair
2024 - Present
The second
year I went, I saw twin boys dressed all in white or beige. In little
shorts, shirts, and shoes. A female photographer asked to take their
picture. One boy was very shy, the other seemed up for it. Their father
insisted they have their photograph taken; he looked so proud. I watched as
they posed in front of a cloth banner printed with an image of
Jesus Christ. The image on the flag looked AI-generated; it reminded me of the
Catholic Church’s rebrand at the beginning of Kevin Smith’s Dogma. If you know the film, you know what I mean.
I bet the photograph of those boys was a cracker of a picture, a male
equivalent of Diane Arbus’s twins, via Stanley Kubrick, via Kevin Smith,
via George Carlin unveiling a statue of Jesus giving a thumbs-up. I
sometimes wish I could work in a more engaged way, rather than being a
fly on the wall. As all this unfolded, at least two other photographers
behind her tried to get a shot too. It felt tight to me. She’d done the
hard work of the approach; they were scavenger photographers, and I
doubt their shots were as good as hers anyway.