Culture Shifts: Summary

CULTURE SHIFTS

CULTURE SHIFTS What does it mean to co-author culture?

FOREWORD CULTURE SHIFTS

What does it mean to co-author Culture? That is the question posed by a cohort of UK based photographers, community groups, community, health and cultural partners across the Liverpool City Region. The question was explored through the delivery of an 18-month socially engaged photography programme, Culture Shifts. The programme, led by Open Eye Gallery and working across each of the Liverpool city region local authority areas was the first of its kind and scale for all involved. Culture Shifts brought 12 photographers together to work with 7 distinct communities across Merseyside. The project invited each photographer and community to co-author photographic work, which they felt represented their interests, community or local identity.

A series of photo story brochures included in this document highlight the artistic quality and diversity of work produced from the programme. They evidence the multitude of ways photographers and communities can respond to the invitation to collaborate. They also act as a testimony to the strength and individuality of visual language each photographer and group brought to their project. In Runcorn for example, a documentary style approach to photography was employed by

local residents to visualize barriers to health and social mobility in the area of Windmill Hill. In this sense the photographers, Gary Bratchford and Robert Parkinson’s role was one of facilitation and empowerment, supporting the group over time to create their own photographic work. Over in Liverpool, Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust collaborated with photographer Tadhg Devlin and the Dementia Network, SURF. Working closely with individuals who live with Dementia, the photographer created highly staged and dramatic photographs representing the complexities of living with the condition.

Regardless of the visual outcomes or approaches to collaboration, Culture Shifts was about inviting

GINA

COLLABORATOR AND PARTICIPANT FROM SURF DEMENTIA GROUP FOR THE LIFE BEYOND DIAGNOSIS PROJECT I look at the photograph we made and think, this is me, this is completely me, everything summed up about my experience.”

photographers and communities to come together to explore what matters to them. By taking up active and collaborative roles in the thinking behind and production of image making, there is a shared sense of agency and authorship in the work produced. It is this shared ownership in the work, which for me has produced the real success of the programme. Culture Shifts utilized the existing principles of co-design where the users, or in this case the community, are in fact the ‘experts’ of their own experience. By bringing the experts of the local context together with the experts of the medium, in this case photography, one finds the most creative but also relevant visual outcomes are produced.

The infographic document included in this document further quantifies the levels of engagement and reach such projects can have on those involved (531 participants took part in a project that reached physical audience figures of 63,109). Where, however does the real legacy lie in such projects? I would argue it is in what happens next, which in the case of Culture Shifts, is the beginning of series of long term continuing partnerships and projects across the region. Six of the seven original collaborations are now continuing or developing into new projects. In each and every case

where a new project is taking place the drive to continue has come from the community collaborators themselves.

This has demonstrated a demand for such projects from the local context up. Furthermore each project was supported and partnered by a locally routed community, health or cultural partner. This ensured demand from the collaborating community was genuine and that routes to engagement were authentic and relevant.

There were important learning curves, challenges and unexpected outcomes also taken from the Culture Shifts programme. These are all key areas of learning, which will inform thinking around sustainability and resilience for future work. Both the photographers and communities reflected that the duration of each residency period was not initially long enough, suggesting more time and resources were necessary to develop such projects. Furthermore at a time when local community resources and funds are continually being restricted delivering projects of this nature are logistically complex and time heavy for local partners. The initial capacity necessary to set up such programmes cannot always be sustained throughout a projects life span and this needs and so roles such as the Creative Producer as well as local community members themselves are pivotal to the

capacity but also longevity needed in future programmes of this nature.

Ultimately Culture Shifts brought the expertise of photographers to come together with the lived experience of communities, supporting people to use photography with confidence as a medium for co-authoring culture. A project all involved, including myself was proud to be part of and cannot wait to see the next steps flourish.

Liz Wewiora Creative Producer (Culture Shifts)

JOE FARRAG

COMMUNITY COLLABORATOR ON THE L8 PROJECT Artists didn’t just swan in, they came repeatedly. This slow building up of trust was very different from people coming in the 1980s. You come, you talk to the people, but most of all you listen”.

CULTURE SHIFTS INFOGRAPHIC

531 participants worked collaboratively with photographers or engaged with the programme - of the main community groups involved…

65%

Culture Shifts was an 18 month socially engaged photography residency programme, bringing 12 photographers working across 7 distinct communities, across all 6 Local Authority areas of the Liverpool city regions Areas: Sefton, St. Helen’s, Halton, Liverpool (Granby), Liverpool (with Mersey Care NHS Foundation), Wirral, Knowsley.

of these participants attending every single session the photographers delivered

GROUP EXHIBITION CULTURE SHIFTS LOCAL: AT OPEN EYE GALLERY of the photographers involved said they would want to continue delivering socially engaged photography projects and continue working with Open Eye Gallery

Number of creative participatory sessions

Collectively with the photographers our community collaborators produced photographic work which span across 8 exhibitions and 3 additional small touring pop up showcases across the 6 local authority areas.

This means we delivered nearly double the number of exhibitions than originally estimated, with total exhibition audience figures of…

93%

of participants were new audiences to Open Eye Gallery

PARTNERS:

Love it, nice to see art made in and around the area I personally know so well.”

63,109

WENDY FERGUSON

KNOWSLEY PROJECT NORTHWOOD COMMUNITY CENTRE This project for me has brought people out, it’s got people together, it’s encouraged people to talk about things that have happened in the past”

I really enjoyed this exhibition, this is the first time I’ve been to this gallery, and to Liverpool…

I’m really glad I came. I think how you’re working with people is wonderful.”

I found the work to be very inspiring. I might submit some of my own images to PhotoStories, what a brilliant idea.”

SUE LOGIE

SUPPORT WORKER FOR NEW BEGINNINGS LGBTQ+ GROUP SEFTON PREVENTION TEAM It was great how the project was self directed for the young people. They were supported through Colin, the photographer passing on his skills and knowledge but they directed and captured the images themselves.”

LIFE BEYOND DIAGNOSIS AT TATE EXCHANGE, LIVERPOOL NOVEMBER 2016 As a medical doctor, my knowledge about dementia is scientific. Visiting this exhibition space gave me a new perspective, more emotional.”

This has absolutely changed my perception of Dementia. This work has captured dementia and all its consequences in a very smart perspective. It has broadened my understanding.”

My wife brought some of the papers into her mother’s dementia home (Paisley Court). The nurses said they had been in 100s of talks, but the photos really brought the message to them.”

KEY IMPACT FACTS

of participants are women

participants ages

64

6 completed projects immediately resulted in new or continued arts activity

CULTURE SHIFTS PHOTOGRAPHER It was a privilege working with the Granby CLT/residents and all of the Open Eye staff. They are an excellent team! We are excited to collaborate again, in the near future. It’s been the highlight of our year.”

They created a motion titled ‘A Curriculum to Prepare Young people in Sefton for Life’ that was submitted with the support of Cllr John Joseph Kelly. This went to full council last and was agreed.

14-86 86

65%

REBEKAH TOLLEY

PARTNERS:

Sefton Youth Cabinet have worked on the Curriculum for Life campaign, which was the focus of their project and aims to ensure core life skills are included in Schools and associated youth programmes for all young people in Sefton.

Photostories projects now online

ABOUT THE LEARNING LAB: AUDIENCE/PARTICIPANT FEEDBACK:

people attending the learning lab event, with…

This was a spectacular event.

Diverse and easy to contribute - yes. but also empowering and ideas-creating.”

16% made up of community members actively speaking at the event

TADHG DEVLIN

CULTURE SHIFTS PHOTOGRAPHER Working as a photographer for 15 years I am a now a convert to the power of this practice, both in meeting my creative potential, connecting to new commissioners and in having an effect in the world.”

I have learnt that there is much more validation needed for projects like these and why events like this are so important.

It felt like a starting point with much more to come!”

STEPHANIE FAWCETT

CULTURE SHIFTS PHOTOGRAPHER AND RECENT GRADUATE This project has enabled me to develop professional and technical confidence, career direction and the appreciation of how effective socially engaged practice can truly be.”

CULTURE SHIFTS #1

Life Beyond Diagnosis Tadhg Devlin SURF Dementia group

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.

photographic 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

Culture Shifts Creative Producer Liz Wewiora

CULTURE SHIFTS #1

Life Beyond Diagnosis

A collaboration between Tadhg Devlin and the SURF Dementia group with Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust Liverpool based photographer Tadhg Devlin worked in collaboration with the Dementia SURF (Service User Reference Forum) group, supported by Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust. The group has a strong track record as ambassadors for those living with early on-set dementia.

A number of the group worked closely with Devlin to create photo stories, which break the stigma associated with dementia, and reflect their lives as individuals, not as a condition.

The images created represent an honest and personal perspective of how each SURF member discovered they had the condition, how it individually affects their physical and emotional navigation of the everyday, and their resilient approach to their future.

With over 850,000 living with Dementia in the UK, and numbers set to rise, the project acts as timely opportunity to use photography as a tool for raising awareness about the condition.

In November 2016, the project took over the TATE Exchange space in TATE Liverpool. The best exchange is seeing

“As a medical doctor, my knowledge about dementia is … scientific, I would say. Visiting the exhibition space gave me a new perspective, more emotional” Visitor (Doctor) at TATE Exchange showcase

the world through my eyes was presented as an installation of photographic works and animated with a host of events led by both the health and cultural partners and the SURF members themselves. The events aimed to open up dialogue around Arts and Health and raise awareness around dementia in a creative and engaging way.

The project is also presented as a newspaper, entitled Life Beyond Diagnosis, which acts as an artwork in its own right as you can pull the pages apart and create your own exhibition for wall display. The newspaper also acts an

“I look at the photograph, and I think, this is me, this is completely me, everything summed up about my experience�

Participant in Life Beyond Diagnosis

alternative piece of interpretation about living with dementia and the individual stories of the SURF group members. The ability to distribute the work on mass as an informative newspaper was a key aim of the SURF group, who continue to present and promote the newspaper at a number of public events and conferences.

Both the newspaper and pop-up exhibitions of the photographic work have been further exhibited across regional library services, supported through the Arts in Libraries programme, as well as the Museum of Liverpool and a number of health centres and university buildings.

CULTURE SHIFTS #2

As and When Gary Bratchford / Robert Parkinson The Women of Windmill Hill / Widnes Vikings Golden Generation Group

CULTURE SHIFTS #2

As and When

A collaboration between Gary Bratchford, Robert Parkinson, The Women of Windmill Hill and Widnes Vikings Golden Generation Group.

As and When reflects on the ideas and identities of two distinct groups of Halton residents, looking at how we build a sense of community, how we sustain a sense of belonging and what we mean by health and wellbeing.

The photographs on show look at the lives of two community groups, the Women of Windmill Hill and Widnes Vikings Golden Generation group.

Photographers Gary Bratchford and Robert Parkinson worked with each group to show how two communities living either side of the iconic Runcorn Bridge are brought together through shared perspectives on social mobility, local visibility, health and well-being.

The Women of Windmill Hill The Women of Windmill Hill, a group based in the Runcorn estate, began their project by actively reconnecting with their area and its history. Along the way, they decided to base the style of their work on a 1970s promotional article about moving to the area, at a time when families were often dispersed to the “suburbs” and away from the Liverpool slums. The final work compares promised perceptions of Windmill Hill in the 1970s’ with the reality of today.

“The World Health Organisation in 1948, the same year as the birth of the NHS, defined health as a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.�

Dr Cliff Richards M.B.E Social Prescribing Lead for Cheshire and Merseyside

Widnes Vikings Golden Generation Group To explore the lives of Widnes Vikings Golden Generation Group, a social group for fans of the Super League club aged over 55, the community were each given a disposable camera and asked to document what they do on match day before arriving at the stadium. Through this process, the group collectively captured over 450 photographs. These images reveal the true extent of their social mobility and daily interactions, further highlighting their common aim of breaking down stereotypes that being older means being inactive.

We would like to thank group member Mike Flynn for his black and white photographs capturing the team over the years.

“More recently there has been a focus on how to deal with less

Some of the ideas behind As and When are based on the World Health Organisation’s 1948 definition of ‘health’ as ‘a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity’.

Ultimately, the project looks at how a sense of belonging is a crucial foundation to healthy, happy people, and uses photography as a way to investigate and encapsulate the daily habits and rituals that form this feeling.

than complete health. Ultimately it is the resilience of individuals and communities that create health. Culture Shifts aims to throw light on this genesis.”

Dave Sweeney, Chief Officer of NHS Halton CCG

CULTURE SHIFTS #3

Winds of Change Tony Mallon Northwood Golden Years

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.

CULTURE SHIFTS #4

Home Is a Person & The World Lived Here: L8 Andrew Jackson / Darryl Georgiou / Rebekah Tolley Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust

CULTURE SHIFTS #4

Home Is a Person & The World Lived Here: L8

A collaboration between the residents of Granby/ Toxteth, and artists Andrew Jackson, Darryl Georgiou and Rebekah Tolley This project looks at the process of how people living in an area alongside each other become a resilient community.

It began as just a short term residency, a collaboration between Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust and artists Andrew Jackson, Darryl Georgiou and Rebekah Tolley. But it has since developed into two distinct and powerful reflections upon what makes a neighbourhood become a home: Home is a Person and L8: The World Lived Here.

Granby is an area in Toxteth (known locally by its postcode, L8), a part of

Liverpool that is no stranger to publicity.

In the 1980s the area was associated with the infamous Toxteth uprisings. It has faced decades of housing demolition projects, upheaving communities in and out of the area. In more recent years, it has been known for its for community-led urban regeneration and social housing scheme Granby Four Streets CLT, and associated Turner Prize winning project with art and architecture collective Assemble.

Working with people from the area, the artists wanted to look beyond the various narratives that the media have woven around the area, and find out what really makes up the residents and history of Granby.

Home is a Person Home is a Person seeks to shed some light on the broad spectrum of people that make up the streets of Granby today. The project is composed of intimate portraits of the community alongside landscape shots of spaces in the area, both private and public.

To produce the work, Andrew Jackson worked in close collaboration with Michelle Walker, who lives in the area and knows it well. Together, they visited the houses of the people that make up the streets of Granby Four Streets CLT. Michelle helped Andrew get to know local residents before photographing them, allowing him to capture honest, collaboratively made portraits in settings that meant something to the people involved.

The images produced reflect the generations of families who have moved, left and returned to the area. They are a testament to the rich cultural diversity of people who make Granby such a vibrant community to be a part of.

Andrew sees this as an initial attempt to work collaboratively with the community and is hoping to connect further in the near future.

Home It’s a simple word that means everything.

of course, are irretrievably interlinked now.

It is difficult, to not consider this when To the extent that some will live for it whilst we reflect upon the horrors of Grenfell others will die for it.

Towers, or preface this disaster within any work which now deals with social housing Home; that place which shapes and from this point onwards. defines us. Which gives us comfort and makes us whole, to the degree that As the horrors from that night point to without it, we can feel that we are nothing the ways in which at times social housing - homeless. has been used to ‘cleanse’ or ‘engineer’ communities or to ‘cut corners’ by a Home is warmth, it is stability, safety; succession of governments, on the quality home is a person. of housing it has provided its people.

It’s nearly one hundred years since Lloyd George’s 1919 “Homes fit for heroes” campaign brought social housing to the forefront of British politics. One hundred years that has seen housing become a political ‘football’ like no other subject other than immigration. But the two issues,

In this light, Grenfell Towers has become the legacy of that 1919 campaign. Yet, if we are to find any positives from this disaster it is that the people’s voices are now being heard.

Andrew Jackson

The World Lived Here: L8 How does the presentation of the past shape our understanding of the present?

This is a question relevant to everyone in one way or another, but particularly for people living around Granby, an area that is still, in many ways, dealing with the fallout of the ‘81 unrest: an event that some refer to as the riots and others as the uprisings.

Since Darryl Georgiou and Rebekah Tolley’s first site visit to Granby, they became focused on creating images that capture the prevailing atmosphere of the area. To do this, they responded to residents’ thoughts, memories, archive photographs and the streets themselves.

The work looks at the past through the lens of the here and now. It involves events, locations and people, all of which present competing narratives of how the area came to be what it is today and what it went through on the way.

One recurring theme is the subject of ‘how places feel’ (also known as genius loci, the prevailing character of a place).

This feeling is, of course, different for

different people. To encompass this, they adopted a collaborative or socially engaged approach to photography; constructing imagery with people that attempts to engage with and honestly represent the people featured in the work.

Darryl Georgiou was born in Handsworth, Birmingham, B21 and as a young adult witnessed the uprisings of 1981 and 1985.

Coming to Liverpool L8 felt strangely reminiscent of ‘home’. Rebekah Tolley spent time in Toxteth after the 1985 disturbances and subsequently worked in Liverpool.

All of the artists would like to thank all of our collaborators for their support during the residency and have plans to continue working with the community and Granby Four Streets CLT on various developments, including the Granby Winter Garden and artist’s studio. Andrew would like to pay particular thanks to resident Michelle Walker for her integral support in creating a platform for participation of community members in his portrait series.

“Whilst editing our pictures late at night, breaking television news showed a block of flats on fire.

Inner cities and their most vulnerable citizens are too often neglected. Any community has to feel safe to thrive. We can hopefully learn from the past and our project aims to explore this possibility�

Darryl Georgiou and Rebekah Tolley

CULTURE SHIFTS #5

Another Language & In The Pink Room Stephanie Wynne / Stephanie Fawcett Wirral Change / Tomorrow’s Women Wirral

CULTURE SHIFTS #5

Another Language & In The Pink Room

These projects are a collaboration between photographers Stephanie Wynne, Stephanie Fawcett, and two separate groups of women based at Wirral Change and Tomorrow’s Women Wirral.

Both projects are presented at Culture Shifts venue partner, the Williamson Art Gallery. It was important to the gallery to showcase the diversity of the area and through the projects, champion the women of Wirral. Collectively Another Language and In the Pink Room have created a series of photo stories, which reflect a real sense of vibrancy and pride from the local Wirral Community.

Another Language The photographs in this project have all been produced with a group of women from Wirral Change, a Black and Minorities Outreach Service.

Most of the women in the group were international, with English as a second language. Another Language seeks to use photography as a universal common language, creating new opportunities for communication between the women of the group.

The work takes the form of long sequences or ‘conversations’ of photographs, almost like unfurled rolls of camera film.

Each conversation begins with an image taken by Stephanie Wynne or Steph Fawcett that resonates with the women’s group.

Using this as a starting point, the women in the group add another image that acts as a response. Long photographic conversations developed out of this process.

The conversations reveal the women’s love of home, colour, landscape and the environment. They also include images from the participant’s family archives and documentation of their journeys to Britain and around the world.

In addition to the conversations, the women are represented in a set of collaboratively produced portraits that give clues to their backgrounds; they are shown within images of their own mirror frames, or

selected picture frames, to conjure the sense of contemplating their own reflection, or looking how they wish to appear.

The colour palette used for the panels is taken from the Della Robbia Collection of pottery, housed at the Williamson Art Gallery. This connects the women, regardless of their birthplace, to Wirral: their chosen home.

“I am grateful for all the skills I have learnt and my view of life through a lens will never be the same again.”

Jenny, Participant at Wirral Change

In The Pink Room Tomorrow’s Women Wirral is a female only environment that the members of the group see as a haven. As one participant puts it, “everyone needs a place like this”.

The women have varied interests and reasons for attending the centre; this is reflected in the work produced. Each participant photographed or collected images of a personal interest, they then applied these images to masks. They chose masks to display their photographs

because they felt that we all, often, have to disguise our true selves. With the support and fellowship found at Tomorrow’s Women Wirral they feel they’ve been helped to remove their masks.

The panoramic portrait of the group, including the two photographers, is set in the beautifully tended garden at Tomorrow’s Women Wirral, making a connection between the participants, their haven and the concept of personal growth.

In the photograph, most of the women are wearing the masks not for anonymity but because of the group’s sense of fun, playfulness and camaraderie.

CULTURE SHIFTS #6

Positive Changes Colin McPherson Sefton Youth Voice / New Beginnings

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.

CULTURE SHIFTS #7

Where Things Are Different Stephen King St Helens communities

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.

photographic 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

Culture Shifts Creative Producer Liz Wewiora

CULTURE SHIFTS #7

Where Things Are Different Where Things Are Different is a photographic project based around the space shared by the post-industrial communities of St Helens today.

Generations of workers live their lives together, gathering memories, telling stories and creating folklore. This project focuses on how this community understands the past, and how the past shapes its understanding of the present.

Focusing upon the experiences that aren’t documented in books or curated in museums but only exist as stories amongst people, Where Things are Different is a project that explores how fact and fiction operate within the context of community.

This project would not have been possible without the help, support, collaboration and kindness of the people of St Helens.

Stephen King and Heart of Glass would especially like to thank: Photograph Participants: Mike Skidmore, Richard Jacques, Chris Dancer, Phill Campbell, Ste Littler, Tim Hanrahan, Carol Stevenson, Graham Auld, David Goldsmith, Ant Shea, John Murray, Olly Ford, Stephen Banning, Mike Lindley, Ryan Ballans, Kevin Thomas, Bradley Roach, Josh Selfridge, Jack Bridge, Ian Greenall, Bethany Mountain, Diane Bate,

Allan Nicol, Keith Hyland, Tony Fillingham, Cath Shea, Ste Thomas, Gary Conley, Kate Tatlock, Georgia McClymont, Mike Skidmore, Marie Rimmer, Hannah Morton & students, Frank Leech, Chris Sephton, Ste Moyers, Mel Moran, Andrew Delahunty, Sue Brown, Stewart Brown, Vasu Joshi, Gordon Pennington, Nikki Ellison, Warwick Webb Chan Stories: Mike Skidmore, John Barton, Enid Pennington , Bea Tinsley, Gary Conley, Steve Mawdsley, Steve Moyers, Ian Gibbons, Nita Ashcroft, Eric Ashcroft, Chris Sephton, Frank Leech, Mel Moran, Dave Stevens, Tommy Frodsham, Terry Murray, Chrissie Tiller, Chris Coffey Organisations: North West Museum of Road Transport, The Greyhound Trust Mersey and Cheshire, Penlake Juniors AFC, The Forestry Commission, Windle Labour Club, The Circus House, NSG, Pilkington’s Family Trust, St Helens Historic Society, Sankey Canal Restoration Society, The Open Eye Gallery, The World of Glass, St Helens College, Rainford Sixth Form

King worked closely for several months with members and groups of St Helens post-industrial communities Beechams, Pilkingtons, historical and restoration societies, miners and labour club entertainers. His project sought to unearth the shared experience that resides within these now displaced workforces. Taking the form of social get-togethers, many hours of informal conversations were recorded and then transcribed to create sources for unpicking accounts and imagery. Many of these same participants and community members went on to collaborate and perform in King’s images, many of which were constructed reenactments of memories.

The final photographs take the form of large-scale (2.5 x 2m) light boxes on the banks of the Sankey Canal. Located at the back of Pilkington’s Glass Works, for decades pipes pumped out warm water from the glass making process into this section of canal, known locally as The Hotties, which - according to folklore - for many years supported a thriving ecosystem of tropical fish, discarded by a local pet shop owner.

“A dynasty in glass, residing in unity, celebrating collectively. Hearing the gathering and the roar the young girl watched the crescendo of the allied effort to protect the woodpile. Doors bubbled under the intensity and panes cracked in their frames with the proximity. Never any trouble...�

The pill was black and from what looked like a big block of tar, but yellow was seen to be more appetising. Spun 12lb a time, in a large drum until the coating left the pill coloured with a high shine.

With no previous experience, three of us took three and a half years constructing two football fields, a cricket wicket and a rugby pitch... we hand-dug a heated swimming pool and finally got a large wooden Pavillion. We had dances, weddings, retirements and significant birthdays, all upon our tiled floor.

Problems began and most evenings and all-day Friday, we’d walk in line, buckets collecting the emerging glass fragments‌ the old Corporation Tip prevailing. I returned to the factory and the Pavillion burned down.

On Friday, once the rest of the Colliery had gone home, only two factions from the same camp remained, The Fitters and The Electricians. It was a race to the top, whoever got to that horizon first had the strategic ground, the barriers would be down and with The Dambusters March crackling over the Tannoy the fire extinguishers would be let off on to the emerging counterparts.

For four years a bonus scheme to produce more coal that couldn’t be sold

created a surplus. Stockpiling, stockpiling, stockpiled... and then they went on strike.

We were digging our own graves and we didn’t even realise. Wreaths were sent through the post to fit young men. It was strange going back to work, strange.

As a little girl the truck passed-by with all these convicts, I was so upset and then another with devils on. Dad would say “If you do that again” the Devil would come and get me. It stays in your mind... A man carried a ball, running a

distance and standing on it statue still until the procession caught up and then off again. Communities came together with ideas and elements of where you worked for carnivals and street processions. If they had a talent, or even just a bit of a talent, anyone could join in.

Singers, comedians, strippers, magicians, you name it… clubland was a career path for some. Barlow turned up, 17 years old in a little dickie bow and a smart shirt… nice lad, couldn’t sing to save his life

though, so far off pitch it was painful.

A guy swallowed things and then regurgitated them in a different order and finished off with the snooker balls.

He’d just swallow them down. “what order do you want me to bring them back up in?”

Roy Rivers adapted his turn for clubland on this unicycle, “what’s the round then?” “clear the path” His tray filled with beer… he went for hours, he never spilled a drip.

Lady Pilkington - the wife of Harry - bore the brunt of the workers’ anger. She made an unannounced appearance. Blue fitted coat, nonchalantly strolling unnoticed for half an hour, but as soon as the gathering began to disperse, she was spotted and drama began to unfold…

Rank and file swarmed. “would your old man work for £12 a week?”

Mavis calmly exited through the crowd.

Within the shadow of the Ravenhead Works, a boy and his friends would play in the claypits off Elm Road. The site of long-gone industries and the dumping ground of the recent, the clay would often give up its wealth of treasures. Gas masks dumped after the war, yellow pottery Lemon Curd pots from the original Clay and Brick Works and glass marbles - a byproduct from the quenching of spillage in plate glass production.

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

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