Playing Bingo have commissioned photographer Michael Hess to photograph more bingo halls in the UK. We already have some of his photographs, but, we loved them so much we decided to commission him to take some more.
The original photographs were from his book Bingo And Social Club which was published in 2010, and was the culmination of Michael’s fascination with bingo halls. He hadn’t played bingo prior to 2005, but obviously he realised that there was more to bingo than cards and callers, there was a whole world to discover.
Michael’s photographs however are more than social documentary, as he really captures the moment, as you can see in the Bingo People gallery. Michael will be revisiting some of the clubs from his original book, the idea being to look at how things have changed over the years.
One obvious change is the introduction of the smoking ban, so I’m guessing there will be a few shots of of players having a session break cigarette outside. It will also be interesting to see the current bingo demographic; is it still ‘bingo wings’, or has bingo managed to succeed in its bid to attract a younger audience?
Michael will be visiting several clubs quite soon, and the photographs will be published on this site later in the year. I’m looking forward to seeing them and will be updating our visitors when the photographs are published.
