‘Journeys Through Sight’, Judy Price
HS Projects commissioned ‘Journeys Through Sight’ a collaborative project between Judy Price and Toynbee Hall. ‘Journeys Through Sight’ was a digital photography project working with women from the Deesha (Bangladeshi) community that combined photography and English learning. The project participants produced images that relay the colours, tones, environment and people that live in their surrounding neighbourhood of Aldgate East and Brick Lane. The images give an insider’s view of an area that is increasingly objectified through the gaze of the city worker, tourist, night clubber or even the artist and enabled the women to communicate new representations of their community and daily lives.
A presentation of artists working with photography and a visit to local galleries INIVA and Autograph (specialists in photography and art collections focused on contemporary art from Africa, Asia, Latin America and the work of British artists from different cultural backgrounds) gave the women a starting point for the project. It enabled the women to think about the power and potential of an image and different ways of portraying communities and their environments, as well as connecting with public spaces in their area that they might not usually consider.
For many of the women this was the first time they had used a camera or taken photographs in the public space. They responded to the project with great enthusiasm and, as their technical abilities, in terms of composition and interest in subject matter, developed, so did their confidence and relationships with each other and the surrounding area.
The project encouraged the women to think imaginatively about their environment, both internally and externally exploring both their domestic and external environments at the heart of the Bangladeshi community here in London. It enabled them to communicate their representation of their community and daily lives.
‘Journeys Through Sight’ was funded by the Insight Community Arts Programme (2002 – 2015).
The project ran from July to December 2009.