The RECREATE project aims to stimulate economic prosperity and job creation in urban centres by gathering businesses in the cultural sector. This initiative should result in a cross-border network of studios, exhibition spaces and work-studios.
The European cross-border programme Interreg IVA France (Channel) - England covers a wide geographical area reaching from Cornwall to Norfolk in England, and from “Finistère” to “Pas-de-Calais” in France.
These territories share a common maritime border: the Channel. Therefore, the Interreg IVA France (Channel) - England programme aims to encourage - between the French and English parties - the emergence of:
an area of common citizenship,
a shared identity for the area of cooperation,
a sense of belonging to a cross-border area.
With a financial budget of 161 million Euros from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the programme currently funds nearly 150 co-operation projects between France and England, which involve some 550 different organisations on both sides of the Channel.
These projects deal with a wide range of co-operation topics that are supported by the programme: economic development, environment, culture, tourism, social inclusion, but also maritime cooperation.
Projects receive an ERDF grant of a maximum of 50% of the total project budget. As regards the micro-project procedure – available only to private organisations such as charities and/or SMEs - the funding rate can reach up to 75%.
This programme is managed by the Région Haute-Normandie.
My part in this was to shoot images of the now, the buildings, parks and roads as they are today but with one common denominator, they are all dominated by the history of the area which is shown visually as the slag piles in the background.
This is the remains of the coal minning industry.
This is a second year project that I exhibited at the Neucleus Arts Gallery, Chatham in 2013.
This project explores depression and how people can feel.
I have chosen to show this visually by using various ideas of depression.
One moment every thing can seem fine and the next it can appear very dark.
This series is about the urban environment, how people use it everyday and don't necessarily pay cloes attention to their surroundings.
I shot this at night to contrast what we see during the day, with the hustle and bustle of day to day life, the spaces are transformed by night.
This was a personal project that I had seen and wanted to give it a go.
This series is about the exploration of non-mass produced products made in England.
I focused on the small industry’s, moreover hand made products, given that there are a lot of mass produced hand made products that use machines in today’s industrial world.
I saught out artists and crafts people that still employ traditional techniques in today’s society and that reframe from using heavy machinery in their trade.
The first image is the artisan, with their hand made project the following three images are of them in their working environment and their tools.
The fashion constructed image, this was a first year project that involved a week long set build, light and strike.
Myself and four others created the set, lit the image and shot it.