A community photography and writing exhibition opens its doors next week.
Dozens of Birmingham citizens produced 3631 photographs and 262 pieces of poetry and prose, holding a mirror up to the town they live in.
Formal opening (Private View) 7.00 – 8.30 pm Friday 24th January 2025
Open (public) Saturday 25th January 2025
Closes 12th April 2025
This ‘portrait’ of Birmingham in 2023 was carried out by 47 contributors from the local community. They produced 3631 photographs and 262 pieces of writing. Their work forms the most recent Grid Project, one which uses systematic approaches to documentary photography and seeks to avoid cherry-picking solely picturesque outcomes.
What makes us happy in our environments? This project used photography and writing to look at the question from a less-than-conventional point of view.
Typically, we might be happy if we inhabit a place with, say, low crime, good schools, friendly neighbourhoods, low-volume traffic, attractive views with lots of trees, clean and tidy streets and so on. We looked at a different dimension of happiness, based on The
Image of the City (1960) by Kevin Lynch.
It is concerned with the sense of wellbeing we get when we possess a strong image of our town or city. We might say that such a place would be a legible place. An image in our heads. Similar to a map, but more than a map. A strong feeling that we know where we are at any given time, and we know what lies beyond our immediate location.
Lynch identified five key features affecting a city’s imageability: paths, districts, landmarks, edges and nodes. We used these on this project as the subjects for our photographs.
The image may contain the picturesque or the ugly: this does not matter. Its distinctiveness and its legibility are the things that make the image strong.
Contacts
Dave Allen (The Grid Project)
daveallen1956@me.com
07711480673
Tom Epps (Senior Library Services Manager)
tom.epps@birmingham.gov.uk
0121 303 6662
The Grid Project
https://thegridproject.uk/
