The Attraction to Social Housing

I never really understood my attraction to social housing or the areas that they reside in other than the feeling for community I get from them.  I love the way that neighbours talk to one another over the fence with bags of shopping that they have got from the local shop, walk into each others houses freely and chat about the weekly goings on in the street.  There are no secrets here, raw emotion is lied bared on the streets and this unrefined texture of life is engrained in the spaces that they live in.    

I was fascinated to come across a book which had been published about an exhibition in 1991 at the Museum of Modern Art, which was dedicated to 'British Photography from the Thatcher Years'.  The new policies and legislation had changed Britain substantially and brought new photography that was more thoughtful in technique and toward social issues of the time.  The catalogue for the exhibition by Ms. Kismaric (1991) describes that.....


           'The current radical changes in British life have charged these photographers with an artistic mandate to look closely at the people and at the landscape in which they live. While the earlier British documentarians photographed the 'other', those outside their social class, and generally of a station less fortunate than theirs, these photographers embrace what is closest to them. Their work reflects an affection for their country and fellow citizens that is unflinching in its description of the country's most extreme ills and the complex manifestations of economic change that are restructuring its society.' 


Looking and recording the places where we live adds another layer of meaning to the pieces of art that we create.  It becomes more than just a documentary piece as it is lead by emotions and meaning rather than just a desire to press the shutter.

John Davies is just one of the five photographers included in the exhibition.  Davies produces large format black and white images from a high view point to really capture that mixture between man-made and nature-made.

Allotments, Easington Colliery, County Durham (1983) by John Davies  http://www.johndavies.uk.com/

Easington Colliery, County Durham (1983) by John Davies http://www.johndavies.uk.com/ 

Visually very exciting, these images help to convey the mass repetition found on council estates.  They depict the raw openness of the chatting occupants on the street and feeling of communal similarity that I love.          

References

Kismaric, S (1991) The Museum of Modern Art - British Photography from the Thatcher Years (Online). Available from http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/6891/releases/MOMA_1991_0020_15.pdf?2010

(Accessed on 10/12/2011)