Winds of Change

CULTURE SHIFTS #3

Winds of Change Tony Mallon Northwood Golden Years

Welcome to the Culture Shifts brochure series Culture Shifts is a socially engaged photography programme, working with 11 national and international photographers embedded in communities across 7 areas of Liverpool City Region. The project seeks to support communities to explore their stories in a way that is meaningful to them.

graphic image, and look at the various strands of collaborative practice each photographer and the medium itself can bring to the work. What happens when we move away from the voice of a single image-maker to that of the collective voice, co-creating, co-narrating and co-curating their own photo story?

Collaborating with photographers, communities have co-authored a series of photo stories: sequences of images that reflect on their identity, interests and lives. Collectively we hope these photo stories will inspire, surprise or challenge people, through exhibitions, an open online platform (www.photostories.org.uk) and within each of our specially designed Culture Shifts brochures.

Through Culture Shifts, photographers and communities have come together to curate their own messages and broadcast them in a way that is inclusive, collaborative and representative. This is the foundation of socially engaged photography. We are delighted to share both the outcomes and the process of each photographer and community.

Together, as communities, commissioners and photographers, we aim to explore the role of photography as a tool for expression and a platform to challenge stereotypes of localised identities. Each community collaborated with a different photographer, and although throughout the course of the programme some themes emerged time and time again, each project was distinct in its approach to working and in the final work created.

Culture Shifts has only been made possible through the collaborative approach to partnership commissioning and delivery and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the local authority venues, cultural, community and health sector partners across the region who made the project a reality. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our core funders for the programme, Arts Council England, for our strategic touring funding support.

Culture Shifts aimed to challenge questions around authorship in the photo-

Culture Shifts Creative Producer Liz Wewiora

CULTURE SHIFTS #3

Winds of Change

A collaboration between Tony Mallon and women from the Northwood Golden Years group, Kirkby.

Liverpool based photographic artist Tony Mallon has been working in collaboration with a group of older women from the Golden Years group in Northwood, Kirkby. The project acts as a welcome return home for Tony, who grew up in the very area the women are based.

“I’ve been humbled by this group of inspirational women, so full of life, determined & with many a story to tell.”

Tony Mallon - Photographer in residence with the Northwood’s Golden Year’s women’s group.

The Golden Years women strive to break down stereotypes of being an older resident. They may well meet regularly for their weekly tea and coffee mornings and afternoon games of bingo, but they also form a group of women who are some of Northwood’s key community activists: despite their age, health and mobility, they volunteered to take on a soon to be closed community centre in Northwood, keeping a hub alive.

These women, some of whom have lived in Kirkby for over 50 years, moved to the area on the promise of fresh air, outdoor space and a cleaner, better life away from the Liverpool city “slums”. Decade after

“It’s been wonderful to see the subtle teaching of photographic art to our group, who now see, understand and produce images in a totally new way.”

Tina Ball Culture Development & Events Officer (Museum & Galleries)

decade, however, the women witnessed the arrival and subsequent closure of factories and industrial sites, which resulted in families and communities dispersed and the local landscape dramatically affected.

Winds of Change brings together a series of collaboratively devised and produced photographs, which reflect these women’s lives and their activism for their local area. There are 3 strands of the project, which come together to create a compelling and wide-reaching photo story of Kirkby through the years.

Firstly we are presented with a selection of the images which focus on the

women’s current community base, the Northwood Community Centre. This includes all the creative and social events that bring them together.

These images then sit alongside site specific shots captured by the women throughout the years, depicting the industrial sites and the affected surrounding land. One of the women, Dolly, spent years documenting the pollution from the factories chimney through a gap between two houses. She documented the Sonae factory and the surrounding area over several years in an effort to chart the gradual changes in her all-too-familiar environment.

For the third and final strand of the project, the women worked with Tony and project partners Kirkby Gallery to respond and weave in archival images of the area. Kirkby has a long-standing history of hosting factory sites. It is this industrial history that has dictated how Kirkby, and in particular Northwood, exists today: from the Kirkby Royal Ordnance Factory (ROF) where 10% of UK munitions were produced during the second world war, through to the stories of separated families through the closure of the Birds Eye factory, to the ill-fated Sonae factory, where a fire resulted in its final closure.

“Families moved to Kirkby for fresh air, new beginnings - built a strong community and voice: ill-served by the powerful” Pauline Rowe - Writer in residence at Open Eye Gallery and creative writing collaborator with the Northwood Golden Years women group

These three strands of photography come together to highlight what matters to the women. They chronicle their memories, joys and concerns about their local area. Working with Tony, they have had the opportunity to reflect upon Kirkby’s past and share their views about Kirkby today, whilst also looking forward to where the area may be heading.

A solo exhibition is presented at Kirkby Gallery from September 2017 until January 2018, showcasing how Tony Mallon and the women used photography to create and curate their message about Kirkby to the wider world.

Photostories

“4 billion photographs per day are uploaded onto social media.

Photography is now as important as text or verbal communication in the stories we tell about our lives.”

Sarah Fisher, Executive Director, Open Eye Gallery

Culture Shifts doesn’t end here. Contributing to the project is open to all through PhotoStories, our new online showcasing platform: photostories.org.uk.

Photostories showcases the result of our Culture Shifts collaborative photography projects, but the platform is also open to anyone. There are resources on the site to help you think about the way you capture, select and curate your own digital exhibition of images.

Everyone is invited to upload photo stories - sequences of photos - that reflect on the people, places and communities that make up your experience of the world.

More and more, we are using photography to communicate to each other. But just like verbal or written language, we must use photography to communicate responsibly and effectively. To join in, get a free PhotoStories account. photostories.org.uk

Partners

#cultureshifts photostories.org.uk