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The key to Our House
by Angela Kelly22/ 9/2006
DOCUMENTARY photography is not only a powerful social tool but
can provide a fascinating and enduring record of ordinary life
captured in time.
And, Our House - a photography exhibition which starts at The Lowry
tomorrow (Saturday) - could well attract a steady stream of
interested visitors from close to home.
It documents a personal view of regeneration and social change
through the eyes of five professional photographers and one
15-year-old resident from an overspill estate about to be
renovated.
These are all set in Salford, Manchester and Tameside and offer
powerful imagery, supported by quotes from the residents
themselves, with the decline of the terrace house particularly
highlighted.
Curator Len Grant, also a contributor photographer, who has made
urban regeneration a major theme of his personal and commissioned
work over the past decade, has produced an interesting new work for
Our House.
This comprises 2,000 prints of terrace houses across Manchester and
Salford in a grid on a nine-metre stretch of gallery wall. Inset
into this display is a plasma screen which will show a short film
of people's views of the terrace house and how this typically
northern form of housing is diminishing in number.
Len has also contributed portraits of residents of the old Cardroom
estate, in Ancoats, Manchester, following their stories as they
moved into the area now known as New Islington.
The accompanying quotes show different levels of satisfaction,
frustration, anger and impatience.
Christoph and Jo Shaw, two more contributors, are normally more at
home producing fashion, architecture and advertising
photography.
But for Our House, they train their cameras on Salford - and in
particular Seedley, Langworthy and the Salford precinct areas - to
reveal residents' views on demolition and the break-up of
communities when families and neighbours move away.
The Hattersley estate features in a documentary in the exhibition
by Liz Lock and Mishka Henner. Built over farmland at the foot of
the Peak District in the early 1960s, Hattersley became a new home
to hundreds of families living in sub-standard inner-city social
housing in Salford and Manchester.
"Hattersley is something of a gem to us," the Tameside-based
photographers explain.
"We believe the strength of its character has much to do with its
isolation from contemporary urban development.
"There is a strength of community spirit there that makes you
question whether the style of urban change taking place across the
UK is always such a good thing.
"It's been a privilege for us to be allowed to create a portrait of
this unique town as it reaches an important crossroads in its
history."
This latest exhibition is also complemented by another collection
of work called Worktown, showing at The Lowry from September 30 to
November 19.
This is the culmination of a nine-month project by local people and
community groups, who worked with professional photographers Paula
Keenan and Jon Purcell to capture the different sides and the
spirit of Salford in 2006.
Our House runs until Sunday, November 19.
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