Sarah Pickering – Public order

I suppose my initial thoughts on seeing Sarah Pickering’s ‘Flicks Nightclub’ images were a little different to most. Having lived above a nightclub in my early twenties, the images brought back memories of playing Scalextric on the roof and after club parties.

The image of the front of the club, to me appears far from dangerous; broad daylight, no dark corners, alleyways or cars for danger to lurk behind. In fact, I would imagine that if this were a real street, there’d be a McDonalds about two or three streets away. I would assume that the windows were boarded up to exclude daylight from the club but maybe I’m being too logical. Having been unable to access any images of the collection online, I can only judge from the two provided in the course folder.

It appears that the streets photographed are not actually real streets but are from towns set up for police to practise real-life emergencies. Yet again, contrary to the unease felt by the course writers, I am pleased that such places exist. Just imagine arriving at your first emergency as a newly qualified police officer, surely you would enter the situation with more confidence if your training had included real life scenarios.

Consider the 2011 London riots; would it be possible to recreate such an atmosphere in a large white training room with desks and a coffee machine in the corner?

Unlike Seawright’s images, which have left a lasting impression on my consciousness, this set leaves me with no more than a ‘Oh, that’s quite interesting’.