The Common Household Safety Pin
The common household safety pin is a reliable and practical object. In 1849 when Walter Hunt filed Patent No 6281, he legally let it be known that he had invented a new and useful improvement in the make or form of dress-pins. Walter was not looking into the future or worrying about the legacy of his invention, he wanted to create an asset which he could sell to settle some debts. He could never have imagined the things it would go on to symbolise or be used for.
When the Queen of Punk, Vivienne Westwood, clothed the Sex Pistols in torn, ripped, buckled, and safety pinned garments, covered in political and controversial imagery, she captured the energy and anarchy of the generation. The safety pin was seen pierced into ears and noses, seen holding together pieces of leather, tartan, ripped t-shirts and denim. One of the most iconic moments the safety pin was used during this era was when it was seen on a T-Shirt designed by Westwood with the artwork of Jamie Reed on the front. The screen printed artwork was of a torn up Union Jack flag safety pinned together with ‘Anarchy In The UK’ written on it. The T-shirt was then worn by Sex Pistols lead singer, Johnny Rotten, to promote their new record. When Rotten received the garment, he proceeded to rip the sleeves off before taking the stage, thus being credited as a ‘modifier’ to the final piece.
If Walter Hunt could get over the surprise of seeing his invention as a key symbol of a rather feral and controversial cultural era. Then the shock of seeing the safety pin used as body piercings, he might then be able to try and get his head around seeing his humble dress pin still used over a 150 years later to hold athlete’s paper numbers to their highly advanced aero speed suits made of materials unknown to his time.
One of my favourite moments working in the world of sport was when I was in the team bus photographing three time cyclocross national champion Stephen Hyde pinning his numbers to his speed suit before a World Cup race in Waterloo Wisconsin. This is a strange ritual that happens before every race. These bulky and awkwardly sized race numbers have to be trimmed and safety pinned to the skin-suits, mainly so they can be seen by officials during a race. Stephen reached and put his hand into the pot of safety pins that had been left by the previous rider who had already pinned their numbers. As I was peering through my camera lens waiting to snap this moment I heard a barrage of swear words. The safety pins had been left open when they were returned to the pot resulting in them, unsurprisingly, to stab Stephen’s hand. The juxtaposition of this rather domestic moment just before an elite World Cup race stuck in my mind. I’m not sure how much damage a paper number does to the aerodynamic performance of an athlete during a cyclocross race, but it does look funny. Seeing a household item which has hardly changed at all since 1849 attached to the best athletes in the world as they perform at the highest level puts a smile on my face. To see a common household safety pin on the singlet of Usain Bolt in the Olympic final almost breaks the 4th wall.
In the summer of 2005 I was in Delmar New York with some family friends. Swimming pools and BBQs, it was a movie-like summer. There was one problem though. Cricket is not a big thing in the States and trying to follow the Edgbaston Ashes Test was a challenge. England were currently 1-0 down in the Ashes series but they had captivated the British population that summer as they attempted to end decades of pain. As the sun beamed down on the swimming pool outside I was down in the basement refreshing the score on the computer. Those that know will understand the pain as the match went down to a nail biting finish. My teenage emotions were swirling and I was convinced it would be a routine Australian series win all over again, but luckily Harmison had other ideas as he banged in a short ball which Kasprovicz gloved to Jones for England to get the final wicket and level the series 1-1 in the most dramatic fashion. I fell off the office chair yelping with joy. Alone in a basement in Upstate New York celebrating a victory in England in one of the world’s more peculiar sports. I hope to never forget that moment. This bizarre game played over 5 days called cricket became the rhythm of that summer. This had been almost exactly one month after the 7/7 bombings in London, and suddenly there was something oddly unifying about Cricket. It was like a safety pin holding people together. Yes, maybe it was just a distraction but I think it was more than that, it was a story imagined, acted and now told. It became folklore to pass on, to help imagine. Sport may well be meaningless but I think that can be its power. The playground games made with common rules can become an outlet of creativity, emotions and harbour stories of magical moments.
Whether it’s the physical safety pin hanging from an athletes clothes, or the metaphorical pin of cricket holding the nation together for a summer, documenting these moments within sport is important. Sport, and sports media, is not all about analysis, data or who is winning and losing. The wonder of sport is its use of silly rules, structures and boundaries, that give us a safe place to be creative, emotional, passionate, and most importantly, be who ever we want to be, whilst celebrating what the human body can achieve. The Safety Pin Journal will be a collection of articles, artworks, photo essays and interviews that celebrates sport, the people involved, the culture it creates and the creativity within it. As a sports fan, artist and photographer, who is inspired by all these, I want to showcase sport in different ways. I hope to engage with fellow sports fans and hopefully attract new ones.