Is Anybody Listening?

About

In 2021, Easton was named Photographer of the Year at the prestigious Sony World Photography Awards for his series Bank Top, shot in Blackburn between 2019 and 2021 (before and during Covid). He was awarded second place in the documentary category for the series Thatcher’s Children, started in 1992 and continued in 2016-22. The exhibition brings these two important series of work to a wider audience across the Northwest.

Easton describes his work as being ‘deeply rooted in the documentary tradition’. In order to build trust with his subjects, he invests time getting to know the individuals, families, communities and places. His approach varies, from standing with his large wooden view camera on a street corner in Bank Top, through to attending a Williams family wedding. The resulting photographs are beautiful and intimate portraits, full of sensitivity and respect, which provide alternative perspectives to the stereotypes around northern communities, poverty and the notion of ‘culture wars’ so often portrayed by policymakers and the media. These powerful images present an important picture of long term systemic failure by successive governments to deal with the root causes of inequality and social deprivation. They give a voice to those who are rarely heard.

This exhibition aims to encourage and enable conversation and debate about the historical and contemporary policy roots of social inequality, about media representation and about the political rhetoric and track record of governments. Through an engagement programme Our Time, Our Place, young people from across the region will work with Easton and other local creatives to learn new skills that give them agency in telling their own stories about their lives and communities.