Positive Changes

CULTURE SHIFTS #6

Positive Changes Colin McPherson Sefton Youth Voice / New Beginnings

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 #6

Positive Changes A collaboration between Colin McPherson, Sefton Youth Voice and New Beginnings.

Positive Changes brought young people from across the Sefton borough together to create a series of photo stories reflecting on their identity, interests and lives.

Photographer Colin McPherson worked with two groups: New Beginnings and Youth Voice. New Beginnings is a group for young people who identify as LGBTQ+.

It provides a safe space for people to meet, to learn, to be and to find who they are in a non–judgemental environment.

Youth Voice is a youth group dedicated to reflecting on the problems facing society and exploring ways to tackle them.

Colin McPherson worked with the groups to create a body of work that visually demonstrated the endeavours of each collective. They worked together to create staged shots that encapsulated the key issues facing each group. These were

presented at an exhibition at The Atkinson in Southport, with an accompanying set of postcards.

Sefton Youth Voice wanted to use photography as a tool for spreading their message about what matters to young people living in the UK today. Working with Colin to create a series of 9 images, each photograph represents a key topic under the recent ‘Make Your Mark – Curriculum to prepare us for life’ campaign. This was a national youth parliament initiative for young people to speak out about the major concerns their

generation is facing. Topics ranged from mental health and cyber bullying to body image, effects of media, sexual health and politics.

The New Beginnings (LGBTQ+) group worked with Colin to explore ideas around gender discrimination, stereotyping and identity. The images show the journey of these young people’s lives as they seek to find a place in society where they feel at home. Some of the images celebrate the positivity that blooms in their supportive community, others in the series look at the challenges they still face, day by day.

Colin and the participants decided to produce postcards of the work as a way of communicating the issues that mattered to them far and wide. They used photography as both a tool for creative expression and a means to communicate their messages to people who can make a difference to their future: the postcards will be distributed to local and national government, to council representatives, and to the education and health sectors.

The aim is to amplify the voices of young people to the audiences that really need to hear it.

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