Exploring British identity
Exploring London's 'national' identity post-'Brexit'.
Photographing his home and his portrait as he told me the stories. His passion can be seen through the imagery and accompanying quotes, all the facial reactions and poses were not staged and were taken as the story was told from the subject himself. I have audio recordings of all three stories and would propose all are played with the accompanying imagery if placed in a gallery environment, where headphones can be placed to hear the stories and see the man behind the words.
I wanted to display a man with a story, in addition to this, the accompanying sequences display three very real stories which explore the themes of identity, diversity, racism and bullying. This project was a difficult process in terms of research and shooting, but and eye opening experience for me both as a photographer and as a family member to the subject of my imagery.
I feel now that this project can be moved into a wider campaign on sharing stories through visual imagery or perhaps other forms of art that express narrative which would become a type of therapy and joining of a community, consisting of like-minded individuals who can express and explain through art.
This is my Creative Conscience shortlisted (2017/18) photography project. This work is about exploring London’s 'national' identity post-'Brexit'.
I set about exploring subjects that could answer the questions that arise from the briefs' subject matter, such as what do community, identity and belonging mean now? Most specifically for people who are first or second generation English, who have found themselves excluded because of their skin colour, culture or religion?
After research into storytelling through imagery I decided I wanted to answer these questions through narrative photography. With much consideration into the subject of my photography, it ended up being my own grandfather, this was decided after hearing his stories on how he suffered greatly for his background and skin colour in his youth, and how he also "witnessed true bitterness and hatred through religion" as he grew up through colonial Britain.
