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Between These Times – Dan Bowhay
What freedoms and independence does the disabled concessionary bus pass truly afford people with disabilities?
Artist : Dan Bowhay
Series : Between These Times
Dan Bowhay spent 10 Days, 19 hours, 33 minutes, and 15 seconds travelling the length of England, from Land’s End to the Scottish Border near Berwick-upon-Tweed, on local buses and within the restrictions of a disabled bus pass.
The work explores the issues faced by disabled travellers – the limits of the disabled concessionary bus pass, and the generally poor levels of bus services found across England. The concessionary pass is intended to provide disabled travellers with the same freedom and independence as able-bodied people, but it falls short of this in many ways. Most controversially, the pass can only be used during off-peak times, a heavily criticised policy that “implies disabled people do not hold a place in the world of work, education settings, or in wider social activities, and dismisses their right to equal opportunities” (Whizz Kidz, 2023). With bus services constantly being cut, and with trains and coaches being excluded from the pass, fewer and fewer locations year-on-year actually remain accessible to travellers reliant on the pass.
The journey and the photographs taken are presented in a handmade photobook. Bowhay’s photographs are a subversion of the work of classic road trip photographers, with him photographing primarily from the buses, his means of transportation, and not at the destinations themselves. These photographs differ substantially from the classic images of small English villages and picturesque natural landscapes that we are accustomed to seeing on tours of the country, and instead reflect a more realistic vision of England, seen through the scratches, dirt, and condensation on the windows of an ever-dwindling public transportation network. The book also provides further contextualisation of the journey and the issues faced. It discusses the history and impacts of how buses have been managed, along with information about the journey itself. It includes a map of the route taken and the buses used, along with timetables that showcase both the planned journey and what actually happened.
© Dan Bowhay – All rights reserved
Dan Bowhay is a photographic artist working in the United Kingdom. His practice encompasses photography and moving image with a focus on installation. Much of Bowhay’s practice is autobiographical, with recent projects focusing on his disability through a personal, social, and political lens. Bowhay’s projects ‘Between These Times’ and ‘Visual Un-impairment’ explore his visual impairment and how this affects his ongoing relationship with the world around him. In other projects, Bowhay explores the relationship between architecture and its communities, reframing photographic archives and their narratives, and his documentary works examine spaces and environments that are less familiar.
