Poet Tamar Yoseloff on the development of her collaborative project with photographer Vici MacDonald • Formerly was conceived as a celebration and memorial to the disappearing corners of London. Vici MacDonald has been taking photographs of forgotten sites in the city for many years – shop fronts, pubs, ghost signs – places which are provisional, … Continue reading
A selection of double-page spreads from Formerly, featuring several poems and the location map. Click on each image for a high resolution version in which the text can be read. Poems Tamar Yoseloff / Photos Vici MacDonald. • Capacity • Flat Iron Square • Quickie Heel Bar • Whitechapel • Formerly • Location map Continue reading
“Fat chance you’ll ever break out of here, / this depository for great mistakes” • Tamar Yoseloff on Capacity: “My poem developed from a play on the name, a place that looks like less than its moniker suggests. I conjure a relationship between two people who’ve come to the end of the road. The model … Continue reading
“. . . Behind each, a different shade / of carpet; the fine dust of misery.” • Tamar Yoseloff on Doors: “The image made me think about people who spend their lives standing on doorsteps – like postmen, or the guys who go from house to house selling duvets – but who are never invited … Continue reading
“No you are here to show you where: / ass-end of nowhere, you are square / off the map” • Tamar Yoseloff on Flat Iron Square: “These faces are like characters in a Beckett play, trapped inside the wood. They are like photos of lost children peering out from tabloids. The name Flat Iron Square … Continue reading
“The stench of hash met his nose, / cocaine-catch in his chest.” • Tamar Yoseloff on Inch & Co Cash Chemists: “This is an Oulipo sonnet, inspired by the close music of the name, so I have allowed myself only those letters to construct words (with concessions for prepositions, and the ampersand spelled out). A … Continue reading
“for cuts, wounds, bruises, scratches, / burns or scalds, eczema, rashes” • Tamar Yoseloff on X-Zalia Night Cure: “This is a ‘found’ poem, the text taken from the promotional ad for this miracle cure-all, circa 1904. It is a companion to Inch & Co – both ghost signs, ex-chemists. Many of the poems are about … Continue reading
