mirror ball

I photographed this artwork (officially titled “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?“)last year during an autumn trip to Blackpool and posted about it here, but the two photos I’m sharing today were from a visit this year, back in July – we went back again because we had a complimentary room.

There are a lot of public artworks around in the UK – I think there may be requirements on developers to install such things when the build new projects, but many of them feel somewhat arbitrary. This one though, is there for its own sake and it’s quite a spectacle up cloese.

Yashicamat 124G & JCH Street Pan 400. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°

Yashicamat 124G & Kodak Ektar. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro

Taken 1 July 2023.

This giant mirror ball stands on the promenade at the southern end of Blackpool’s seafront. Erected in 2002, it is the world’s largest mirror ball with a diameter of six metres.

The actual title of the artwork is “They Shoot Horses Don’t They?“, named after the depression-era story by Horace McCoy (later turned into a Jane Fonda movie) that tells the tale of young people attempting to win a $1,000 prize by dancing until they can no longer stand.

Blackpool is famed for its glitzy entertainment, music, and dancing – including the famous Tower Ballroom – so the mirror ball is a fitting piece.