23) Interview with John and photoshoot

Over the Easter holidays I traveled back to Greenbank to start asking some of the residents questions about the way they live to learn more about them. I started off with John, one of the residents living in a horsebox. He's one of the first people I spoke to when starting the project, so it only seemed right to do the first interview with him.

1. How long have you lived here? Or in a van?

"I'd known about this place for 2 years and bought the horsebox 6 months before I moved out of a flat, which I hated. I felt low and depressed about moving out, paying £100 a week to live in a shit hole with a leaking roof and a stove that didn't hardly work whilst still paying money for electric. I started to feel anxious about all these issues that come with a house, so I'd been looking online for about a year for ambulances at first and then the idea grew bigger so I looked for horseboxes."

1a. Why ambulances?

"I liked the idea of blacked out windows, they're already usually insulated, and if you get one that's converted it's much more comfy, but they're small".

2. What are the pros and cons to living this way?

"It was cold, I bought a heater in the end but I haven't got a fire. A fire is quite good, but you have to make a hole in the roof, and gas is way worse. You could leave it on and have all the windows shut and you might starve of oxygen, then there's carbon monoxide poisoning. I've just about got through the snow and thought, I need to get heating! I wasn't staying here because it was so cold. But I have my dog, so I can cuddle up to him for warmth. He's an old boy, and he's been with me the whole time I've been depressed and stuff, and he's helped me get up and get out! He's saved my life, and it took me 6 years to get out of that period of my life. Now I have a job, I haven't worked for three months but I've still got savings."

3. What is your job?

"At the moment I've been doing security work for TV companies. We go out on location with all the film trucks and actors and everything ... and I sit out overnight looking after all the gear."

3a. Do you take your van?

"I'd have liked to take a vehicle, like a live in, but I have this and it's too big and too hard to drive. I have a Volvo which I use for work, so I've been running two vehicles, and I take the dog with me and we just sit overnight. I just play on my laptop. I get loads of free time as I only work a couple of days a week, and I get paid £100 a shift, so that's like enough if you're not paying rent! It hasn't really picked up after Christmas, but I'm not panicking, there's no point worrying about everything."

4. Do you like the community around Greenbank?

"It's much better than I've ever had in bricks and mortar. People will just pop up and borrow stuff like, and then you've gotta chase them up to get it back, like tools and money whatever. And then there's Brendan who's quite funny, a bit older than me but not by much, and he takes it upon himself to sort out all the issues like dogs crapping in the road, there was issues with the school up there because they walk through every morning and afternoon, but they all seem to know us and like us, and they'll come up and pat the dog. The teachers have been saying that someone has been shitting in the entrance of the school in the enclosed gate, and there's a lot of people, especially on the caravans, getting quite divisive, because caravans are not strictly legal, and they can get moved on. My vehicle is fine, as long as you pay road tax and insurance. We've had clampers come down, and it's never one of these, it's always a residents car. It seems to work, the Police were up here the other day, council have been along with a leason team for travelers and gypsy travelers. They wanted to sort out the rubbish because there was a lot of recycling piling up. There's definitely a social system going on here, even though its one road there's like heroin addicts in the tents there, they're all over the park making a mess and leaving needles. It's not really our place to say get lost, but it is our place if they threaten our wellbeing. It's definitely food for the critics, and they'll lump us in altogether, but we're separate. Plus people like to rob things if they need money for drugs, so everyone's got their gas bottles tied up, bicycles locked up.

4a. So can you lock these vehicles?

"Most people have just got normal car locks, but they can be broken into, the caravans are like plastic (laughs) windows just wobble and fall off. Sometimes you get the odd broken window."

5. In terms of this project, is there anything you want people to know and understand about you as a community which is overlooked, like when the news people come and don't paint a very good picture.

"They don't and you know I've seen absolutely no negative comments when I've been sitting on my step, like people going 'fuck off' or 'what are you doing here' no one's ever said anything like 'oh where do you go to the toilet', it's just the news that pick on us the most. Like for instance saying that we were breaking into people's gardens and using people's toilets, and why would you bother when you have your own toilet facilities, or your own system. Everyone has their way of doing it themselves.

We're all self-sufficient and we're learning about solar, not paying into huge energy companies that are seen as cons. We're all pretty self-sufficient except the little issues we sort out like rubbish."

5a. Would you kick someone out of this community if they were causing trouble?

"If they come down shouting and pissed up, we just lean out the van and say 'shut up', and if someone is consistently doing that, they don't hang around long, people like Brendan will jump on. We're much more of a community, but you can choose to be on your own."

6. Where did you get the van from?

"I was looking on EBay and Gumtree. This one appeared in South Bristol, a VW / lorry make, so it's like the biggest VW camper you can get, if you think of it like that. I thought yeah, cus it's metal as well, and I went to look at it, I didn't even try it out I just bought it. I drove it home for the first time realising it's not really the same as a car, it doesn't have any power steering. But it's a classic and I've always liked classic cars, and I've only done about 80 miles this year, so the insurance is really low, which is great - as long as we can stay here!"

7. What's going on with that?

"Well I think they're letting us off right now as its winter, and lots of other sites around, you might have heard of the one by the M32 ... well they all got evicted, so half of them came here, and the thing is if you evict them from there, they're just going to go somewhere else. The caravans are a bit of an issue, because there's a civil by-law which states they can only stay for 4 weeks, which is quite a lot. Some people here have actually found caravans which have been abandoned, Chris and Tia who were the first to arrive, came in a caravan and have actually been allowed to stay, apparently they got some legal advice, and they said because it's a dwelling that they were exempt, because they were homeless. It's actually helping them out! The council have been helping, they want to pick up the rubbish. If there's another site we can move to they might recommend it.

8. Would you rent somewhere that had toilets and facilities to live, like a yard?

"I don't know, I like it here. That would obviously cost and you tend to get a mentality on a yard of it being a bit more lawless, and you're locked in, and no one is really looking after you, whereas this is a public road, and you'll meet people just fellow vannies, and most people are really nice! Easton has got that sort of good vibe about it. I'd like to move back to Reading and see my folks and stuff because they're ill, but there just isn't anywhere to park up for more than a day without getting vandalized or told to move, parking permits are also everywhere!"

Overall I'm really pleased with the interview answers I got from John because they're really detailed and it's allowed me to learn more about him and the community of Greenbank. I feel this text paired with strong portraits would look really successful.

After doing the interview with John I decided to take a few portraits and interior shots of his home, which you can see in the contact sheet below.

The two larger images above are my favourite portraits from the shoot. Overall I feel the images are okay, but there are no amazing portraits, and this is what I want. I feel I need to go back again and move him into different environments and sitting / standing positions to work out what looks best, but I felt a bit scared to be overly directive. However I am pleased with some earlier portrait shots I got of John, so I could use these instead. Nevertheless I want to go back and try and get some stronger portraits, but these are a good start.