For Issue #3, Motherland, Alex Warner (aka koolkatwarner) shares his documentary project Last Bangers In South (2017).
On the 29th of September 1962, Wimbledon Stadium held its first stock car race, the 1962 Superstox World Championship. From that day, the stadium was a hub in South London for banger and stock car racing. Living local to the track, Warner grew up spending his Sundays watching different banger racing events at the stadium. In 2017, a development company bought over the stadium to build the new AFC Wimbledon football club, retail space and over 600 new homes. The stadium was London's last racing track and home to a community of enthusiasts who worked to keep the races running and protect the stadium from demolition.
Using his camera to record the last ever banger racing event at the now demolished Wimbledon Stadium, Warner not only captures the ending of a specific era and past-time in South London. Looking at his portraits of the crushed cars, Last Bangers In South seems to epitomise the destruction and erasure beneath all redevelopment projects of local history and community.
To see more of Alex's work or to contact him, visit:
www.instagram.com/koolkatwarner