Blackpool has an unenviable reputation for its stag and hen parties. Every weekend marauding packs of brides and grooms, close friends and family, overflow its streets on a mission to consume dangerous, liver-crushing levels of alcohol. This, their rite of passage acted out on the last night of freedom, before the conventions and responsibilities of marital life, mortgage, children.
Dougie Wallace has captured a town heaving with everything from bunnygirls to banana men. Girls dressed in togas, all matching gold handbags and neatly-done hair, giving it the ‘when in Rome’ treatment, devil girls, pink ladies, Brownies, guys in drag, stuffed into nuns’ and nurses’ outfits, wearing salacious T-shirts with ‘Johnny’s Last Night of Freedom’ or ‘Up the Anus Ashley’ – each group with the same singular objective, to get as ‘fucked up’ as possible.
London-based photographer Dougie Wallace grew up in Glasgow. He is recognised for his expressive social documentary and a distinct and direct style of street photography. As he says; ‘Human behaviour motivates my pictures. People, their interactions and emotions fascinate me… Translating this, through my lens, into social wit, criticism and humorous vignettes is what stimulates me.’
Largely self-taught, he took up photography seriously after having served four years in the army. Often known as ‘Glasweegee’, Wallace believes that his Glasgow upbringing has helped shape his style, which has been described as ‘hard edged’ and ‘visually exaggerated’, conveying a personalised point of view that is both believable and absurd. His work has featured in many publications including commissions for The New York Times and Stern Magazine, Germany.
Dougie Wallace
Stags, Hens & Bunnies
Hardcover: 96 pages
Publisher: Dewi Lewis Publishing (2014)
ISBN-13: 978-1905928118
Order the book: www.amazon.com
Order the book: www.dewilewis.com
