A Day In The Life Of A Busker
by The Busking Project
Information & Participation Pack
Introduction
Hello, and welcome to A Day In The Life Of A Busker.
Whether you found out about us on our Facebook page, blog or through word-of-mouth, we are delighted you did. We originally hoped to find a handful of buskers in central London keen to document their day in the form of 24 photographs, but, such was the international interest, the scale of the project has changed. Instead of an article, we are now running a blog.
We hope to reach buskers from all around the world, as to get as diverse a range of street performers’ perspectives as possible. Your series of 24 photographs will add to the growing dialogue between buskers and also reveal an otherwise unseen perspective to people outside of the immediate busking community.
Photograph: Dawn Marie performing. Keep your eyes peeled for 24 photographs documenting her as a street performer.
There exists a problem in which buskers’ artistry and professionalism are not respected to the same degree as a similar performer in let’s say institutionalised spaces, ie. people may feel comfortable approaching a woman singing on the street to take a photograph or video and depart without giving a donation and perhaps would not feel so comfortable breaking into an opera house and doing the same thing. This is a pretty extreme example, but it but the whole concept of this blog is to problematize widespread ideas of what it is to busk.
People form opinions on buskers based upon what they see on the street and watch or read online, and taking an interest is great. But there is an issue of gaze. It is all exterior, looking in on the busking world from a distance. Crucially, therefore, we want to give buskers a voice in the media, and show people what it looks like from the other side of the donations hat. There is a fair amount of media coverage regarding the problems a busker faces on a daily basis but it is rarely from the perspective of a busker.
Instead of projecting our ideas on to buskers, we hope that this piece will give a more authentic account of busking on a day-to-day basis. Instead of peering in to a relatively unknown environment, these photos gaze outwards. We know they will allow for an interesting new gaze, in which the real perspective of a busker is revealed.
First off, if you spend the time taking photographs for our blog, we can absolutely promise that your series will make it online.
How do you get involved?
For aesthetic cohesion please take all your photographs landscape.
We have no filter, no selection of the ‘best’ or ‘worst’ collections, no instruction as to when you start the series of your photographs or end them, just that the maximum amount of time for the collection is 24 hours.
They will be presented chronologically online, so please don’t tinker with the order.
Get as creative as you want with the taking of the photographs, and then send them off for the world to see. With no artistic input from our side, it really is up to you how you represent a day in the life of a busker, in just 24 photos.
There are two ways you can get involved. Digital or disposable, it’s up to you!
Here is a step-by-step guide;
- buy a disposable camera. It should cost £3-5. If they charge any more, you should probably try somewhere else
- take 24 photographs in one day (remember, the photographs should be landscape).
- get them printed, and send them to us, with your
- name
- performance style (e.g. “musician” or “juggler” etc)
- location
- the date on which the photos were taken
- a short 200 word blurb / piece (can be informative, poetic – you decide) on the process, your act, etc etc.
- Send it to:The Busking Project
Wayra London
2-10 Capper Street
London
WC1E 6JA.
If you want to get involved and cannot afford / acquire a disposable camera for any reason, use an iPhone, digital camera or any other camera available to you. We reiterate that we would like you to use a disposable and would love to see some responses in this form, but do not want to exclude anyone. If you cannot get a disposable DO NOT BE DISSUADED. Send the photographs to the same email / address. Remember that they must be landscape, and at the same aspect ratio as disposable cameras, 3:2.
Final Words
All entrants who do the above have the chance to win a flashdrive with 4 hours of busking movies and two albums on it. The winners will be selected randomly.
Naturally, we are very curious to see what you have to say. If you have any questions, do not hesitate in contacting us via email, info@thebuskingproject.com, or on Facebook.
With every post to A Life In The Day Of A Busker we will post a short piece to our own blog advertising the new post and giving a little information on that performer. If you want that post on The Busking Project’s blog to contain any particular video / audio, be sure to attach those in the email.
Thanks again, and we look forward to hearing from you,
The Busking Project team