Vinca Petersen’s first photo book, no system was published in 1999 – though it was never supposed to be a book. “It was literally a family photo album,” Petersen explains over the phone from her home in Ramsgate. The photographs, letters, diary entries and notes that eventually became no system were souvenirs from the decade Petersen spent living on the road as she followed various sound systems around Europe, putting on free parties and living nomadically. In the 20 years since its publication, No System has taken on a life of its own. It was Petersen’s friend, mentor and fellow photographer, Corrine Day, who suggested she show the album to Michael Mack and think about publishing it in the late 90s (which she did eventually, with Steidl). By the time Petersen had come to Day with the photo album, it was simply because she had become known “as someone that had all these photos from parties over the years”, and various demands for copies were creeping up; the idea was to make ten copies of a photo album, for each of the sound systems she travelled around Europe with. When Day brought up publishing, Petersen was not convinced. “I was like, no way, there’s not a chance. I mean, it was like getting your family photo album and selling it, and I thought that everyone would hate me.” Armed with the promise of a free copy of the eventual book for everyone who featured in it, Petersen saw the only way of justifying the project was to get their permission. Petersen had been taking pictures for much of her life – she remembers and still has her first photographs, taken at about the age of seven – and by the time she was in her twenties, it was second nature. “It’s an innate desire,” she says of the act of photographing. She describes never wanting to “interrupt” a situation, and with her small film camera her aim was simply to capture what was going on. “I think I had a sense – although we were very much living in the moment – that what I was living through was extraordinary. So much happened in one day and I was aware of the fact that I didn’t remember everything,” Petersen says. “In some ways our younger selves seem like strangers. Who was that person? What were they thinking? I get lost in the memories. It was definitely a way of remembering and capturing these adventures and keeping them.” And adventures they were. She has recently posted an image on Instagram, of “K running between two burning cars at a Reclaim the Streets in Tottenham” in the late 90s. The rave scene that Petersen was a part of – much-mythologised halcyon days, especially in the UK since the Criminal Justice Act of 1994 – is glimpsed not only through her photographs in no system, but also the handwritten notes and letters, written on maps or scraps of paper and detailing their nomadic life. “Eventually the inevitable happened and we all had eviction notices plastered to our vans and the bubble was burst – we weren’t wanted. In this vast, unused field in the middle of a deserted industrial wasteland we weren’t allowed to live our blissful harmless life,” reads one page. Immersed in Petersen’s sun-drenched, languid days in idyllic landscapes and hazy outdoor parties, it’s easy to forget that their own utopia was not the norm, and not accepted.
she says, different peoples' lives are based around different things, ours is based around music. At our core is a sound system. It feeds us, nourishes our talents, it dictates our movements, brings adventure and keeps us together. At first there was one, now they are multiplying and the tribes that establish each are becoming stronger and wiser. We want freedom from static society. Freedom to create our own societies with our own rules. We are not rebelling against, so much as living outside the system. Free music to anyone that wants it is what we give and we need nothing back but space to roam. Tribal beats have surrounded our planet for thousands of years. Technology is our addition to this continual rhythm. Age is no concern, background irrelevant. We exist now and in the future. Welcome to our way of living... her photographs are evident of her experiences with people and places and her new experiences. you can see the emotions in the image and the atmosphere through the way she has photographed the scene.
these two images here are some of my favourites from vincas work. i love the grainy aesthetic she has created using her camera. the way she has saturated the images makes them appear fun and more vibrant, it demonstrates the atmosphere that she is in, having a good time with people doing things that she loves. . the graininess created is something i could consider when thinking about iso as they give her images a documentary like feel to them, which shows the realistic aspects of what she's doing on this journey. another thing i like is how she has used the reflection of the water in the scene which sort of overexaggerates the amount of people that are there implying her life is full of meeting lots of people and participating in activities which include many others. her work takes a different approach at showing experiences through the colour pallets and technical elements, where a lot of blur is used which i think is to show the crazy experiences at the "raves" that she would always attend. the way her technical elements mimic the context of her images really interests me and has influenced me to try it myself with my own work.
