Bloomfield Talks: Book Launch & Exhibition 2009
10/05/09 17:55 Post: Publications | Exhibitions
Bloomfield Talks Photography Exhibition By Yannick Dixon. Saturday 9th May 2009.
I was asked to join the community based arts project Bloomfield Talks in August 2008 by internationally renowned artist Simon Grennan. Bloomfield Talks is a year-long oral history project commissioned by Blackpool Council and ran between July 2008 and May 2009. The project focuses upon the experiences of people who have connections with the Bloomfield, Foxhall, Revoe and near South Shore area of Blackpool.
At the heart of Bloomfield Talks was a team of local volunteers brought together specifically for the project. Ranging in age from the late teens to the late seventies, the volunteers engaged other local people in conversations and activities focusing on their daily lives in the area. The volunteers documenting these exchanges in writing, pictures and audio recordings, creating a new archive of records about ordinary people’s lives. There really are some great photographs taken by local people over the years that say so much about life in the area and I’m really pleased to have my pictures shown beside them. In February 2009, the volunteers edited and published the new archive as a book and will given away as a gift to the five thousand households in the area. All of the original material will be lodged with Blackpool Libraries and the North West Sound Archive. This archive is available online.
I was asked if I’d like to put together a photography exhibition of my Blackpool photographs to compliment the launch of the Bloomfield Talks book on Saturday 9th May 2009. I exhibition included a few of the photographs that feature in the book as well as some from my MA project ‘Blackpool: An Unimagined Space?’. The images were printed on an Epson Stylus Pro 7900 and then mounted onto Aluminium (wooden frames on reverse). There were sixteen photographs in all; ranging from A1 to A4 size. It was a great opportunity to get a response from local people about my work and to support such a fantastic event.
I also got the chance to take some more portraits during the book launch.
Although there was so much going on with the launch of the book and the photography exhibition, I think that this photograph I took of two old ladies standing outside the church is my favourite image from the day. The bad weather meant that more and more people came off the streets to see what all the fuss was about. These two ladies had come to see what the Bloomfield Talks project was all about and were braving the weather to watch a group of school children banging drums out on the street in celebration of the event.
I’ve included one of the pages that feature my photographs below.
To view a previous Bloomfield Talks blog post click on the link below:
Bloomfield Talks Tea Party
To view the Bloomfield Talks gallery click on the link below:
Commissioned Work
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