Issue 113 / April-May 2021

A new public-facing
exhibition, commissioned and
curated by Tate Collective,
will feature images of
Merseyside and the North
West displayed on billboards
across Liverpool. Featuring
landscape, portrait and
documentary photography
submitted by those aged
16-25, the collection of
images looks to build on
the work of Don McCullin
and highlight the social
intricacies of the region.
Leah Binns takes a closer
look at the works in question.
Isolation - Callum Cole
NORTH W
Since normal life as we know it has been
uprooted and as lockdown rules and statistics
continue to fluctuate, the coronavirus pandemic
has changed how we interpret imagery;
an emptied landscape, or a lone figure, has come to
represent a stronger feeling of solitude than it did before.
Photography taken at this time takes on a certain
quality, and there is a new framework for understanding
the world that reflects this tenuous and difficult period
of collective responsibility. Perhaps fitting for the way
in which we are continually adjusting to shifts in life’s
parameters, a current exhibition at Tate Liverpool
captures moments of social unrest, ranging from the
industrial North to international conflict, by British
photographer Don McCullin.
The images draw on very timely ideas of political
upheaval, as well as smaller moments that reflect the
everyday life of the subjects. Purposefully confrontational
and resistant, McCullin’s images push at the boundaries
of the viewer’s ethics, presenting scenes of poverty and
war with disturbing clarity.
Following a Tate Collective open call, billboards
across Liverpool will be filled with photographs from
young creatives inspired by McCullin’s work. Members
from the Tate Collective scheme, which is free to join
and open to all 16-25-year-olds, were invited to submit
photographs in response to the exhibition. In addition
to gallery discounts and £5 exhibition tickets, the Tate
Collective scheme gives access to free events and
creative opportunities, such as this ‘photographing the
North West’ open call.
From all of the submissions, 30 images have been
selected to appear on billboards throughout the city from
7th April and will be shown in the studio at Tate Liverpool
once the gallery is able to reopen later in May. The open
call was created by Tate Collective Producers, a group of
16-25-year-olds working with Tate to curate events and
opportunities for young people.
The thread that connects the images is the spirit of
the North West, through its communities, culture, and
landscape. While the results were wide-reaching, many
themes are recurrent, showing the persistence of certain
feelings in our collective consciousness; from isolation and
escapism, to community and protest. Some images explore
new understandings of landscape during lockdown, while
others touch on the North West’s playfulness, civic pride,
artistic outlook, or political histories.
Tate Collective Producers, Laura Wiggett and Niamh
Tam, who helped create the project, note how they
prioritised providing a platform for young creatives who are
currently being left stranded by
the lack of opportunities in the art
world. Breaking with the current
tendency for works and events
to move online, Laura highlighted
how the producers wanted
“something physical to have”.
As a public-facing billboard
project, a different understanding
of scale and space that is
disconnected from exhibition
conventions was necessary,
which opened up new challenges
for the producers themselves.
Laura stressed the importance of
making the exhibition “accessible for everyone”, both for
its contributors and in its reception. More sporadic than
a conventional exhibition, and framed by the city itself,
the project has the opportunity to directly exist within the
space it seeks to reflect.
“Looking at themes of protest through McCullin’s war
imagery, looking at landscapes through his images of
Liverpool, the images that we’ve chosen are a really good
reflection of the exhibition itself,” says Niamh.
“These images
follow in McCullin’s
footsteps by
exposing the
histories embedded
in the landscape”
The influence of McCullin’s landscapes is particularly
apparent in some images that are energetic natural
scenes with dynamic compositions. Photographs such as
Safe Travels, Neston and Thurstaston Beach respond to
a shift in our relationship to the local area, whether that
be a sense of absence as implied by our loss of a daily
commute, or a renewed interest in nature through daily
walks in lockdown. Safe Travels, Neston balances a sparse
scenic view with a lively flock of birds. Thurstaston Beach,
on the other hand, is far darker, with a more rocky, textured
feel, almost ghostly in how it is laden with gloom.
“Despite what it suggests,” says George Jones, the
photographer of the image, “the coast is often packed
with locals enjoying the smell
of the salty air, the joyous
atmosphere, or the vastness
of the sea at the mouth of
the Mersey. Hopefully what
Thurstaston Beach does signify
is the intertwining and treasured
relationship our local landscapes
have with their people.”
Discussing the influence
of McCullin, Jones adds: “What
I found exceptional about his
landscapes, having come after
the intense, excruciating images
of conflict, was the space and
expansiveness they possessed. The skies specifically
were so visceral, so epic, almost at times apocalyptic.”
For many, a daily walk in nature has come to
symbolise a way of sustaining normalcy, or routine,
through unusual times. The image of Thurstaston Beach
definitely reflects this; there is a sense of catharsis in its
vigour, in how it draws on expansive space as an antidote
to the confinement of lockdown.
Other images represent urban rather than natural
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