Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Bizarre photograph in The Metro

What were they trying to hide on the left hand side?

19 comments:

manwiddicombe said...

I'm guessing that by reflecting the image it makes it look more like a residential road and less like a caravan park?

Mark Wadsworth said...

Man, perhaps so.

But the fact it's a caravan park doesn't stop it being residential, does it? In fact, we'd be better off if we all lived in caravans and rented a site from the local council, which'd raise enough money to abolish all other taxes.

It'd be LVT without the downside - if you think the rent is too high, or if there are more jobs elsewhere, you can just take your caravan elsewhere, or a few neighbours can shuffle their caravans together a bit to reduce their plot size and hence their rent.

When your kids are young and need space to play, you rent the plot next door, when they leave home, you can then vacate the second plot and down-size without lifting a finger. And so on.

JuliaM said...

One for the 'Photoshop Disasters' blog?

manwiddicombe said...

Indeed it doesn't stop it being residential. There are however negative connotations (rightly or wrongly) associated with the people who currently live in that type of accommodation.

Miss Piggott, a pregnant 19 year old who drinks 5 nights a week, might quickly be dismissed by many as a stereotypical resident if the image accompanying the story had not been doctored.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JM, I'm not sure. That blog is for bad photoshops where the mistake was NOT deliberate (which this one clearly is).

Man, there are a few such static caravans at the edge of the woods at the far side of my ridiculously expensive suburb - they sell for about £150,000 each - that's £30,000 for the caravan and £120,000 for the privilege of occuping about a hundred square yards of not very much at all, with a fifteen minute walk to the nearest shops.

Sue said...

How bizarre. Perhaps that's the "good" side of the trailer park and they've just mirrored it to stop her being called "trash?"

Bayard said...

Sue, I'm not sure; by the time you've registered "drinking" "pregnant" "teenager" "blonde", "Essex" and "trailer park", all the stereotype boxes have been ticked and your mind is moving towards "trash" without any help.

Mark Wadsworth said...

S, probably. But it seems a funny way of doing it.

B, yup, just about every prejudice rolled into one. But she still seems like a nice enough lass to me, and she'd probably being wilfully misquoted.

TheFatBigot said...

I've looked at the picture a number of times and still haven't the faintest idea what is meant to be odd about it / wrong with it.

TheFatBigot said...

Apart from a tree hanging in mid air, I suppose.

View from the Solent said...

FB, shadows!
That looks like an expensive permanent caravan park to me. Manicured gardens, newish-looking cars. Similar to one in which a friend's mother lives, near the New Forest. As Mark says earlier, they're not cheap and the annual fee is eye-watering.

Mark Wadsworth said...

TFB, draw a vertical line through the floating tree - the bit on the left hand side is a slightly stretched out mirror image of the bit between that vertical line and the young lady in question.

Bayard said...

"and she's probably being wilfully misquoted"

Indeed, if it is true that "Miss Piggott, who admits her mother calls her ‘selfish’, uses morning sickness as an excuse for a hangover so her boyfriend doesn’t find out about her drinking sessions." she'd be pretty dim to tell the reporter that, so that her boyfriend can find out via the paper.

TheFatBigot said...

Oh yes, thank you Mr Solent and Mr W.

Mr Bayard, methinks you might assume too much about the boyfriend's level of literacy.

AntiCitizenOne said...

I assume it has something that gives her address away.

dearieme said...

I had assumed that you were alluding to the strange disposition of her crowning glory - hiding a tattoo, I suppose.

Mark Wadsworth said...

VFTS, this one looks very nice as caravan parks go, but we still don't know what's lurking at the left hand edge.

B, the way the newspapers twist this stuff is outrageous, and if she really were naive enough to actually say it, then they simply shouldn't print it. Discretion is the better part of valour.

AC1, or people might just recognise her face and name.

TFB, he'll find out, fret ye not.

D, if by "crowning glory" you mean her hair, I think the modern expression is "extensions". Or probably "stensions" by now.

Bayard said...

"I assume it has something that gives her address away."

But why not then simply crop the photo?

Bayard said...

Ah, I have it. It was a slow news day and the story is made up. This is evidenced by the number of stereotypes it conforms to. They took a model and posed her on a static caravan park and the bizarre mirroring is an attempt to prevent the real inhabitants recognising it and complaining.