Golden Generation in Runcorn, Culture Shifts: Local
Max Gorbatskyi, current Open Eye gallery intern, reflects back on his visit to meet with the community groups collaborating on the Runcorn ‘Culture Shifts: Local’ programme with photographers Gary Bratchford and Robert Parkinson.
As part of Culture Shifts: Local – a socially engaged photography programme in which we focus on communities across Liverpool City Region, photographers Gary Bratchford and Robert Parkinson are working with groups across Halton CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group).
Recently, we visited the Brindley Theatre in Runcorn to meet with the Golden Generation group and to discuss the future exhibition that will be held there. Golden Generation is a group of Widnes Vikings rugby team supporters, aged 55 and over, who share a passion for rugby, visiting the stadium and spending time together.
This photography programme is a participatory project, where value lies in the idea of sharing personal stories and creating a common vision for it. Exhibition content is being created by the group members as well as by the photographer and then curated together. The project’s format combines the organised artistic approach with the spontaneity of amateur snapshots and a generalisation of common experience with a highly personal story from every member of the group.
At the meeting, participants had a chance to see the gallery space, review each other’s work and to share ideas about the project’s further development.
This is part of wider project, which sees photographer’s Gary Bratchford, Robert Parkinson and Halton communities explore the issues of wellness and wellbeing and questioning how photography can challenge the pre-existing ideas of this topic. The exhibition will run from 1st July 2017 until 2nd September.