//...AWARDED ARC & ARTS COUNCIL PHOTOGRAPHY COMMISSION...// My proposal for a civic art project in Hull was selected by ARC, the architecture centre for the Hull and Humber region, for their Arts Council / Townscape Heritage Initiative commission, called East Meets West. The East Meets West commission will accompany the construction of a new bridge across the River Hull, and - in consultation with the community - is designed to "bring together the two geographic regions [of East and West Hull]" and focus on "the architecture and heritage of the represented area." My proposal was a series of conceptual documentary photography portraits that will "connect Hull's citizens, her architecture and her varied history through a series of portraits. The portraits will feature ordinary residents of the city whose professions or pastimes somehow connect them to one of the city's seminal historical roles." "These portraits will represent the ripples of Hull's past as they influence the city of the present. Some portraits will have a comical, ironic twist. Others will more directly and seriously relate the city's contemporary economic and social challenges." The project has a participatory element to it, which will provide the subjects of the images with the chance to make decisions about their own representation, combining their personal and collective perceptions of their own and their city's history - what Professor John Gillis calls "popular memory" - with my outsider's view. Below, you'll find the selection of previous work I used for the proposal, projects that - like this commission - specifically refer to the relationship between the individual, their geography and a personal and collective sense of history.
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