1982 and 1990
A Social Documentary Photographic Study

Barton Hill Yob Centre, the sign said as I first entered the Youth Centre in 1982, and I believed it. All male, all white, with NF scrawled on the walls, it was calculated to upset my Anti-Nazi League, middle class sensibilities. The place had a reputation; gangs, fighting - they would eat me alive! As it turned out, the young people who came to do my photography course were friendly. John, Hutch, Tony, Neil and Lee used my SLR camera to photograph their haunts, their lives, their pre-occupations. They also talked about themselves on tape. We then used this material to make an exhibition and a tape/slide show. These early pictures are theirs, facilitated by Barton Hill Photography Project. In 1982, the Youth Centre was their place.

I stayed working in the area, and eight years later chose to use the club as a subject for a personal photo documentary project. I was impressed by how much it had changed. It still had a ‘reputation’, and it was in constant conflict with the police and local authority, but it did not have the same kind of problems with racism and violence. It was a much more integrated and open place. A more active place. And a much more beautiful place. Local people, ex-club users, were now working at the club in one capacity or another.

“I was doing 200 hours community service for ‘criminal acts’ and I told the Youth Service that if they gave me £500, I would build a skateboard ramp”, says one, “They gave us the money, so I built it.”

John Nathan, who started going to the club when he was eleven, had qualified as a youth worker. He encouraged painters to use the youth club walls so that they would have a legal space to work. The Aerosol Art Project was born. (Not graffiti, “We are artists and should be respected”.) He believed that it helped stop illegal painting in Bristol at the time. It certainly gave the club a face lift and some much-needed self-respect. “People don’t want to give credit to something that is primarily a working class movement.” John said,

“Kids come from all over Bristol to paint. The kids at the club are proud of the stuff and don’t tag it or vandalise it. It’s called a ‘Hall of Fame’ because it’s a showcase, a gallery for Aerosol Art. Along the side of the front wall are the tags of visitors; artists from all over Britain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, and the USA. Vulcan’s tag is there. That he visited the club during a tour of the UK shows we are really on the map.”

The high calibre of work is also the result of having a legal site, “You don’t see that quality of work on the street- you’ve only got a couple of hours before you get arrested.” “Having a legal site was a new experience for us as we had all been working illegally, mainly on cold dark railway lines and sidings and obviously putting ourselves into dangerous and illegal situations.”

Despite attracting Police attention and the embarrassment of the youth service the project thrived. “Aerosol Art is becoming more of an accepted art form today as authorities gradually realise that there are worse things that young people could be doing, and people realise that it can brighten up ugly spots.”