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Other People's Windows
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Other People's Windows is a publication in process - I intend to self-publish this book in early 2023. The work looks at the glimpses we get into other people's lives, and is a side project to my Levenshulme work below.
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LVE
This work developed from MA work on Levenshulme. At the start of lockdown, I began a visual diary. Initially this journal motivated me to take at least one image per day, documenting the experiences of me and my children. However, it has built to create a narrative about motherhood: the repetition and daily observations that form the backbone of the space one inhabits as a parent. The project is 2.5 years in the making and continues, with over 2100 images thus far.
Levy Lockdown
The LVE work developed in collaboration with a poet: I took the poems that she wrote daily, and combined them with images I had taken on the same day, and envelopes delivered to me on that day. The combination of these occurrences spoke of connection and shared experience.
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I was also invited to publish my work in a collaborative zine, created by Ciara Leeming, about lockdown in Levenshulme. One of my images was selected as the cover image for the zine.
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TRACES (Rebel Daughters)
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Self-initiated work based on the historical farms in Levenshulme. I located references to farming in the Levenshulme area (road names, old farm foundations etc) and photographed these on expired Polaroid film. I wrapped an old farm gate in cotton, allowing the rust to oxidise the fabric and thus imbue it with traces of the farmhouse it once guarded.
I interviewed a local resident who remembered the farms and stitched her memories into the oxidised cotton, in self-coloured thread so that the words themselves became barely-visible traces woven into the fabric.
I created two 2m x 1m wallhangings, which were exhibited at The Point in Doncaster as part of their Rebel Daughters exhibition, in Levenshulme Old Library, and at The Old Courts in Wigan.
I interviewed a local resident who remembered the farms and stitched her memories into the oxidised cotton, in self-coloured thread so that the words themselves became barely-visible traces woven into the fabric.
I created two 2m x 1m wallhangings, which were exhibited at The Point in Doncaster as part of their Rebel Daughters exhibition, in Levenshulme Old Library, and at The Old Courts in Wigan.
LVE # 1
After my MA, I continued working on the zines. I produced (and self-funded) a zine about shopkeepers along the A6 in Levenshulme. 1000 copies of this zine were distributed from shops and businesses in the area.
I created a zine as the culmination of my MA project on Levenshulme. The zine was a collaboration between me, an illustrator and a graphic designer. One thousand copies of the zine were distributed at the MA exhibition and in shops/businesses in Levenshulme.
My final MA work focused on activists in Levenshulme; I wanted to find people who were striving to make the area better, and interviewed and photographed a range of campaigners and community figures. Experimentation led to simple portraits, alongside quotes from the interview transcripts.
Initial work on Levenshulme captured daily views and changes along the high street. The details and observations that I made continue to interest me and feature strongly in my ongoing work.
Eyes Wide Open | Openeye
A project in collaboration with Openeye Gallery; documenting the spaces in which the gallery had resided and exploring its past. The work was published in Eyes Wide Open, a copy of which lives in the Openeye archive.
Antwerp Mansion
I spent a number of years photographing Antwerp Mansion in Manchester, returning monthly to capture the traces of activity taking place in the building. I built up a portfolio of hundreds of images, documenting the life of the venue and the people who lived and worked there. This work was exhibited in Antwerp Mansion itself twice, and in other locations around the North West.