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 <strong>April</strong> and will be shown in the studio at Tate Liverpool once the gallery is able to reopen later in <strong>May</strong>. 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 26
Cranborne - Oisin Askin Safe Travels Neston - Connor Maxwell Harry Arthur, homeless in Liverpool - Harry Saundry EST IN FOCUS A Flicker of Hope - Sean Tadman FEATURE 27
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