Fun without vulgarity : community, women and language in Showland Society

Much of the literature relating to the history of fairs and travelling communities is written from the perspective of an outsider and deals mainly with the material culture of the societies concerned. The aim of this study is to shift the balance back to the community itself and investigate the notions of belonging, group identity and the customary lifestyle of travelling showpeople. Although there are approximately 250 fairs which take place from April through to November every year, little is known about the lifestyle, history and culture of the showpeople that present these attractions. Fairs have long held a fascination for an assortment of writers and chroniclers, but the history and traditions of the society behind the fair remain virtually unknown. Through the use of tape-recorded interviews and archival sources a comprehensive body of oral, photographic and documentary evidence has been brought together to form the corpus of material necessary for this study. The resulting data selected for presentation has been analysed in detail and, by applying the methodologies practised by social anthropologists, linguists and cultural historians, has been broken down into three principal focal topics: the relationship between showpeople and other Travellers; the role of women in the community; and the use of language. These topics were chosen as central to the analysis of changes that occurred in the traditional society in the late 1880s and which have shaped the development of the fairground community in the twentieth century. The study reveals the fluidity and development of the traditional culture of travelling showpeople, analyses the status and role of women within the community, and demonstrates the importance of linguistic usage in maintaining a strong sense of separate identity within the contemporary travelling communities. The advantage of the insider’s perspective has provided significant new insights into the society and culture of travelling showpeople

Contemporary Photographic Practices on the British Fairground

The fairground is a somewhat magical and uncharted realm of illusion, deception, thrill and adventure. It offers a glimpse of the improbable and impossible, and a taste or touch of the unattainable. This article looks at the crossover of photography and the British fairground following the gradual take-up of photography in the post-war period. It briefly covers early traditions concomitant with the specialised practice of photography, then it identifies photographic practices on the fairground through distinct communities of engagement including professional and amateur photographers attracted to the spectacle of the fair, ethnographic explorers, dedicated enthusiasts, showpeople and the general public of “punters”. In each case photographs from these communities are presented as well as a selection of photographs depicting these communities of photographers in action. The article concludes with the current situation of camera phone technology, social media and digitally manipulated photographic art as a new aesthetic of the fairground

Collision, Collusion and Coincidence: Pop Art’s Fairground Parallel

This article looks at parallel methods, motivations and modes of consumption between formative British pop art and British fairground art. I focus on two strands, the emergent critical work of the Independent Group and the school of artists based at the Royal College of Art under the nominal leadership of Peter Blake. I use iconographical and iconological methods to compare the content of the art, and then examine how pop art tried to create both a critical and playful distancing from established rules and practices of the artistic canon. I focus on non-institutional cultural groupings and diffuse production and consumption models

Vanessa Toulmin photograph, Newcastle Town Moor Fair, 2003.

Shaw's Waltzer - A195 - photographed June 2003

Vanessa Toulmin photograph, Newcastle Town Moor Fair, 2003.

Eddy's Waltzer - A200 - photographed at night June 2003

Vanessa Toulmin photograph, Killorglin Puck Fair, 2001.

General view photographed July 2001

Vanessa Toulmin photograph, Marlborough Mop Fair, 1992.

J. Wall's Waltzer - W70 - photographed building up, 16 October 1992

Vanessa Toulmin photograph, Hull Fair, 1994.

Trevor Dailey's Shake It Miami - MM17 - photographed 1994