Photographer launches calendar celebrating ‘S*** Brighton’

A Brighton man is launching a calendar celebrating the less photogenic side of Brighton in answer to the perfect images pumped out on social media.

Instead of reflections of the Pavilion, murmurations by the West Pier and a seagull eating someone’s chips, Bennie Johnston’s Shit Brighton calendar features litter on the beach, graffiti and roadworks.

But Bennie insists he loves his adopted city – and he wants his calendar to be an antidote to the impossibly flawless world people create for themselves online.

He said: “I’ve had the idea for a few years now. It was just after Christmas – Christmas is full of all the nice photos of lovely decorations and people’s houses with trees.

“But after Christmas you walk around the it’s cold and a bit crap and everyone’s throwing away their trees. Nobody ever photographs that side.

“It’s not about Brighton being shit. I love Brighton, it’s a brilliant city.

“People get depressed because everyone you see online looks so perfect-  and everything you post too. You look at your own life and you think actually this isn’t true.

“That’s the memories that people want to create but it’s not that helpful. You need to remember there’s shit stuff out there as well.

“I live in Blaker Street, which is the most Instagrammed street in Brighton. I’ll be bringing my shopping in and there will be people taking pictures of the colourful houses.

“But they’re not there at 3am when I open my door and someone’s shooting up outside.”

Bennie, whose day job is a software manager, is printing a small batch of calendars now with a view to printing more if they sell well.

They will be on sale soon at local markets and pubs in the run up to Christmas – for more details, visit www.facebook.com/shitbrighton/.

All profits from the sales of Shit Brighton will be donated to AudioActive.