Faces and Spaces Second Project - The Courts
In this project I attempted to push my skills further, incorporating drone footage, multiple cameras, video, more conceptual imagery (mix with more candid shots).
Beneath are a collection of interviews focused on Duckett’s Common, the basketball court in the heart of Turnpike Lane. These interviews were conducted over the summer of 2023. I focused on the individuals who frequent the space to show its value through their eyes. I hope the interviews reflect the community, kindness, vulnerability and care that I felt when I was there. I want to thank the interviewees for making the experience so fruitful for me personally. Furthermore, I want to thank the individuals that supervised the sessions, Hesketh Benoit, Tony and B.
What kind of sacrifices have you made?
Stuff like waking up early. Waking up early wasn't my thing, especially on holidays. If you asked me two years ago, I'd never expect to be waking up at six o'clock to go train. Now I do it regularly. I train every day. I try to have one rest day Sunday but sometimes I go overboard.
With practice, I feel motivated to do it. Like it's not a struggle… I feel like I have to get it done. It can be something to not enjoy at times but at the end of the day, I love it after every workout. I'm happy because I feel like I got this done and I feel like I'm moving up in the world. I wanted to be a pro athlete when I was young, but now… I want it so bad. I've been training… I feel like all this work is leading up to something. I'm just gonna keep going and try my best.
What type of person do you want to be?
I feel like I need to shape myself into someone that’s respectful and learn to help others. I've seen a lot of people struggle in my life and I would look to help them if I was a pro athlete in the future. 100%.
I feel like there is a kind of a pressure to help people, but there isn't, at the same time. At the end of the day, I’m doing this for myself. But I feel like I should help people because there's a lot of people who put time and effort into me. And even if I don't make it, I can still give back to them. I can give them thanks and stay in touch with them. But yeah, I think it's good to give back to the community.
Jack: What do you want to be?
Daniella: There is nothing specific…
Jack: Come on…You must have something you wanna be?
Charlotte: An MP
Jack: What was that?
Daniella: She said I wanted to become a member of parliament but that's an old dream.
Jack: Why is it an old dream?
Daniella: I don't really like it any more.
Charlotte: - Ohhhh she wanted to be a youtuber!
Daniella: No I didn’t! (Laughter)
Charlotte: She was filming videos of us!
Jack: Doing what?
(All laugh)
Daniella: You didn’t wanna see us when we were 6 years old!
Jack: What were you doing, eating dirt or something??
Daniella: (Laughter) No!
Charlotte: We made a band! (All laugh)
Daniella: It was us three (laughter), we used a broken toy leg, (All burst out laughing) that was the microphone!
Jack: So I guess you were singing Daniella, what were you doing Charlotte?
Charlotte: Drums!
Jack: What with the other toy leg?
Charlotte: No! (Laughter) Like with kitchen spoons, on this toy drum.
Jack: What about you Esther?
Esther: Guitar! A plastic guitar… No strings, it made sounds but was a toy
Jack: What songs did you play?
Daniella: (Laughter) Do you know the movie Sing? We sang one of the songs, you know the hedgehog? We sang the one at the end…
Jack: Oh the closing one, that’s a great song!
Esther: We just made it horrible!
Jack: That’s a hard song to sing, no?
Daniella: At six years old yes!
Anonymous
Why did you start playing basketball?
I started playing basketball because I was smoking so much weed at the time, it was taking up most of my days. I was trying to stop doing that and I had to replace it with something. I've been trying to get my friend down here. With him, his issue is drinking and taking coke all the time, which is obviously a bit heavier. His grandfather died recently, and he was like a father to him. So, I went to his, I could tell he was in the headspace of like, ‘I'm gonna take gear every day on my own…’ So I just asked if he wanted to go play basketball. He said ‘I haven’t played basketball since I was a kid’ but I told him to come down and then we just kept going recently. Now he's bought his own ball and is obsessively doing it as well.
I think a lot of the time when you're in that headspace of just self-destruction and you have friends around you that don't really care, or also want to get fucked up, you can’t change. Sometimes you need other people to be like, ‘yo, you don’t have to do that’.
Yeah, to find supportive friends that truly deeply care about you and want to change is hard. Often, if you are both going through something you can become a crutch for each other or enable each other’s coping mechanism.
I'd given up for a while when I went to Uni but then started up again after a friend of mine killed himself. I started bunking off Uni and giving myself a rest and just smoking weed all day. Then the pandemic started… that was fine because it seemed everyone was just sitting around all day, so it didn’t really matter. But it was starting to make me completely nuts.
I know a lot of people are fine smoking all the time, but I was not getting any sleep. I have ADHD and I think maybe it doesn't affect me the same as someone normal. It makes me like hyperactive… it will keep me up all night. I was so paranoid as well… pissed off with everyone and feeling hard done by. I think I wasn’t dealing with the issue of my friend dying. I was just smoking it away.
Who do you look up to?
Kyrie Irving because he’s got good handles, is a good shooter and is shifty as well. I want to be an NBA star and meet all the good players like Kyrie and Steph Curry.
Why do you come out and play?
Because I want to get better… sometimes I play in the rain as well. The more you practice, the better you get. So I just practice often. One thing I do is, go close to the hoop, I shoot five shots with one hand, then to the free throw line, shoot five and then the three-point line.
I went to this thing called Power League and tried out for the Enfield Scorpions Basketball club and didn’t get in. But they put me in the development team to help me improve. They said a couple of months there and then they will put me on the team.
How do you get better when you’re not on a team?
I get most my moves off YouTube and then memorise them. Then you try to do it… probably fail but when you practice it, you get better and better. I also watch NBA for the moves, shooting… I watch carefully what they do, their form and just start practicing.
What are you trying to achieve at the moment?
Probably try and get a job… just like five pound an hour. Even though I’m 14 and still young, I want to make some money so I can get a new basketball and some basketball posters for my room. Also, I want the Kyrie 7s...
Can you tell me about an obstacle you’ve had to overcome?
During school I had speech and language difficulties. I had a speech impediment, like a stutter. I couldn’t construct my sentences. I remember that feeling of being removed from class… I didn't pass my GCSEs. It was like, ‘where do I belong?’ You feel doomed, you know?
It's in our nature that, when we do something or we spend time on something that doesn't go to plan, we're supposed to work out how to overcome it. In my time, if you failed GCSEs you’re finished. But if I didn't go through those obstacles, in terms of going to college, working in different jobs and meeting different people… It was only at 28 I asked myself, ‘I'm going one way or the other, what am I gonna do?’
I found out very quickly that I like working with people and I love sports. I started from there and I did my instructing course, my personal training course, went to university, then coaching in schools and now I'm in teaching in schools. So, I mean, it goes from one state to another. It illustrates that, cause I've been through that journey, I know how much it took me to get there. We’re supposed to fail… it's okay to make mistakes.
For me, not being the most confident person, having speech language problems, being labelled as this ‘special person’ and feeling that you don't belong in society… until you meet people with sympathy and empathy and that work with you… only then you can take ownership. I accepted it's part of me, it’s who I am. Once I'd done that, then I could start doing things myself and find out where I belonged.
Artwork was also created to create a more immeserve world for instagram posts, website and the subsequent zine that was created. A digital page is below.