Gothic laundromat image query

December 13, 2024 8:54 PM

The Economist has just published a (very simplistic) piece on Goth culture - Goth culture has returned from the dead [archive.ph], the most interesting thing to me is the image with the article [economost.com] - by the photographer Jess Hand for Time Out, it really is something special. I'd really like to know more about the photo as forty-five years ago some highschool classmates went seriously Goth / visually Punk - and have stayed there. I'd like to know if the photo is staged, or happenstance - I've travelled a lot and have seen as unlikely especially in the UK.

Most of Jess Hand's work is on Instagram (and I cannot make an insta account as I've tried to make an account twice and it gets immediately banned - garden design must be very transgressive as I can't think of another reason).

So does anyone here have more of an idea of the image's origins?

posted by unearthed to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (13 answers total)

The sign says it's the Barbican Launderette, which is evidently kind of famous--to the point of having an Instagram that says "Get in touch for filming and photoshoot." So I'm gonna guess it was staged like the other photos on Instagram.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:20 PM on December 13

Incidentally, here's a view on Google Maps dated May 2024 that shows the other side of the launderette where the person in the Economist image was sitting--same sign, same machines, same wall color, etc.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:29 PM on December 13

Oh, one correction: the May 2024 photo has machines toward the front that are a match for the Economist photo, but the large blue and white sign is directly over a larger kind of machine that's a better match for this photo dated May 2022. So without looking too hard for other ways to date these photos, I'd guess the Economist photo was taken after May 2022 but before May 2024, because that larger kind of machine seems to have been swapped out at some point.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:44 PM on December 13

Oh, here we go, in May 2022, there's no sign over the middle of the 'front' machines, but the £6 sign exists in this September 2023 capture. The larger sign above the £6 sign isn't in quite the right place, but I'm gonna leave this thread alone now lol. Fun question.
posted by Wobbuffet at 9:53 PM on December 13

There's nothing on Hand's Instagram that would help with this image specifically, but there's a lot of editorial work with Time Out posted starting in 2022, for what that's worth.
posted by EvaDestruction at 5:58 AM on December 14

[One deleted. Please keep comments relevant to answering the question. ]
posted by travelingthyme at 7:07 AM on December 14

I've walked past that launderette a lot and never seen anyone in it, for what that's worth. Though always daytime hours. Thanks for asking the question - it led me to finding an article and posting it at MetaFilter: here.
posted by paduasoy at 8:05 AM on December 14

The perverse possibilities of the Barbican.
You could be invisible there.
You can get a notion of floating across the city.
[Source]
posted by eschatfische at 8:29 AM on December 14

Here we go. Time Out London did a goth feature in October 2023. This image isn't in the online article but it looks like it would've been from the cover shoot.
posted by EvaDestruction at 11:17 AM on December 14

EvaDestruction, I see the image in the online article when I scroll down a bit.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 4:42 PM on December 14

Thanks, I should go check it out when I'm at a computer, then. It's not showing up for me on mobile.
posted by EvaDestruction at 5:18 PM on December 14

Amazing sleuthing Wobbuffet!, and paduasoy has made an FPP on the Barbican Laundry.

EvaDestruction I found that image via the model's facebook last night - Parma Ham [CW and NSFW as extremely non-vanilla], and their facebook with another image from the shoot.

eschatfische, I never heard of SaintEtiene but that whole album encapulates the late 60's/early 70's UK anodynity rather too well.
posted by unearthed at 7:57 PM on December 14

LOLOL I very much wish I had something to add to this thread, but alas I do not. :D Nice photo, anyway!
posted by mygothlaundry at 2:00 PM on December 16