Street Source is a regular feature showcasing photos taken around Brighton over the course of a month by one of our photographers. The idea is to share spontaneous moments around town – be it incidental street scenes, snapshots of people’s lives or images of the city as a landscape. Each month we ask a different local photographer to participate; this month it was the turn of Jon Southcoasting.

January is a cold, terrible month. Coming straight after the party of December, we could be in the southern hemisphere relaxing in sunshine, but instead we’re on the south coast of England, where it is inevitably dark and wet. And everybody hates their job and no-one goes out and we all compound our woes via carb-free diets, nicotine patches and (shudder) a ‘Dry January’.

Twenty-Seventeen was further improved by yet more rail misery, the bewilderment of Brexit and the inauguration of the worst leader the Western world has seen since Adolf Hitler.

Somehow we still managed to get out of bed, armed with our camera. On some days, it was a miracle we managed to snap anything at all. This is a picture of the pier (on a foggy day, in case you were wondering).

The London Road’s Open Market is a lovely place – full of colour and life – and one of its longest-lasting shops, now in its fourth decade, is Jon and Bob’s Buttons & Bows.

Also at the market, there’s Ubu Books, a brilliant source for reasonably-priced great, obscure literature (and occasionally incongruous soft toys).

And of course, there’s always fresh produce, whether you want fruit and veg or some giant local eggs.

Even in winter we find a little warmth in the colour of the Laine…

…and there is always music and life.

Mind you, it’s not always pretty. The town could do with a fresh coat of paint in places.

But sometimes the art on the wall demands you stop and look.

…and at other times art seems like a scream for help. We feel there’s a story behind this piece, but we don’t know what it is.

There are some small miracles. On really cold days local wildlife got to walk on water.

We also spotted Elvis in the back of a Rolls.

…but some visitors didn’t seem to be going anywhere.

Finally, a welcome blast of colour keeps cropping up at The Level. Maybe there are signs of sunnier times to come?

Photos by Jon Southcoasting

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