Luke Stephenson, Wells Next to Sea #56, from the series 99 x 99s, 2013. Copyright Luke Stephenson. Courtesy of the artist and The Photographers’ Gallery, London
While Berlin’s weather may be currently flirting with the idea of summer, things are heating up over in London at The Photographers Gallery with the group exhibition “Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time…”, a show focussing on the British seaside with works from Simon Roberts, Luke Stephenson, Nicholas Hughes, Mike Perry and John Hinde.
Here, Sleek caught up with British photographer Luke Stephenson, about his series “99 x 99s” in which he photographed ninety-nine of the iconic British seaside ice creams quite simply called, the 99.
Sleek: How did the series begin?
Luke Stephenson It all kind of began when I was started doing a project on ice cream vans a couple of years ago, and then from that I started to get more and more interested in the ice creams themselves and how they have become iconic items in British culture. From there I started to think, “What if I was to photograph ninety nine ice creams in the same way every time?” – you would see all the differences between each one. That was something that was really appealing to me. In the beginning though I thought I was just going to go to ice cream vans, but I soon realised that when you’re at the seaside you don’t need to be in a van because people just come to the beach, so I had to open it up ice cream parlours as well.
How did you make the series?
I bought myself a little camper van, called the “Bedford Nipper”, which became my little house and my mode of transport. It began at the end of July and I was on the road for 25 days, I started in Southampton and then I went east to Brighton, Kent, Essex, and then all the way up the East coast to North Yorkshire up to Edinburgh. Then from Edinburgh I went to Glasgow, and then I came down to Carlisle and left the van with my mum, before setting off again about a week later and heading towards Cumbria, Wales, Devon and Cornwall.
I also made a little studio on wheels that fit into my camper van, and the idea was to photograph the ice creams exactly the same throughout the country. Because of the wheels on the box, it meant I could wheel it up to the ice cream van or shop, get the ice cream, put it in the box, photograph it and it would all be done within about thirty seconds.
Was this the first time you had set out to photograph one thing repeatedly?
A couple of years ago I did a project on cornflakes where I set out to try and photograph every cornflake in a box of cereal. It then escalated into 7,122 cornflakes. That was a horrible week of my life!
Back to the ice creams, did you set yourself any rules when you were making the series?
Only that I would say yes to any sauces or toppings that they asked, sort of a bit like Supersize Me. Otherwise it was just a plain 99.
Ninety-nine ice creams is quite a lot, did you have to eat them all?
I didn’t have to eat them all… But I did eat quite a few! I did taste every one, just to see and I definitely had one a day at least. I couldn’t have eaten them all, I would’ve been sick! I became quite the ‘99’ connoisseur by the end actually.
I also got really interested in some of the cones as just some of the designs on them are absolutely beautiful. I used to get quite excited when I was handed a nice cone! But remember I did do this on my own, so I was basically just spending two weeks on my own in a little van eating and obsessing about a certain type of ice cream. It got a bit maddening at times.
For many years in British documentary photography, photographers such as Martin Parr and Tony Ray Jones have been fascinated with the British seaside – what is it about the British beach that is so appealing?
I think it is just because the seaside encompasses everything that is great and bad about British culture – all in this little enclosed world. You see all the sides to Britain and it draws you in.
What was your favourite ice cream?
The nicest tasting one was from an ice cream parlour called “Jones” which was just outside Swansea. That was a really good tasting home-made ice cream and I used to get really excited when I found a good one. Thinking back, it was really strange for a thirty year old man to be doing that…
See more of Luke Stephenson’s series “99 x 99s” below
Text by Amy Binding
“Didn’t We Have A Lovely Time…” is showing at The Photographers Gallery, London from 11 July-31 August 2014
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