CULTURE SHIFTS #7
Where Things Are Different Stephen King St Helens communities
Welcome to the Culture Shifts brochure series Culture Shifts is a socially engaged photography programme, working with 11 national and international photographers embedded in communities across 7 areas of Liverpool City Region. The project seeks to support communities to explore their stories in a way that is meaningful to them.
photographic image, and look at the various strands of collaborative practice each photographer and the medium itself can bring to the work. What happens when we move away from the voice of a single image-maker to that of the collective voice, co-creating, co-narrating and co-curating their own photo story?
Collaborating with photographers, communities have co-authored a series of photo stories: sequences of images that reflect on their identity, interests and lives. Collectively we hope these photo stories will inspire, surprise or challenge people, through exhibitions, an open online platform (www.photostories. org.uk) and within each of our specially designed Culture Shifts brochures.
Through Culture Shifts, photographers and communities have come together to curate their own messages and broadcast them in a way that is inclusive, collaborative and representative. This is the foundation of socially engaged photography. We are delighted to share both the outcomes and the process of each photographer and community.
Together, as communities, commissioners and photographers, we aim to explore the role of photography as a tool for expression and a platform to challenge stereotypes of localised identities. Each community collaborated with a different photographer, and although throughout the course of the programme some themes emerged time and time again, each project was distinct in its approach to working and in the final work created.
Culture Shifts has only been made possible through the collaborative approach to partnership commissioning and delivery and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the local authority venues, cultural, community and health sector partners across the region who made the project a reality. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank our core funders for the programme, Arts Council England, for our strategic touring funding support.
Culture Shifts aimed to challenge questions around authorship in the
Culture Shifts Creative Producer Liz Wewiora
CULTURE SHIFTS #7
Where Things Are Different Where Things Are Different is a photographic project based around the space shared by the post-industrial communities of St Helens today. Generations of workers live their lives together, gathering memories, telling stories and creating folklore. This project focuses on how this community understands the past, and how the past shapes its understanding of the present. Focusing upon the experiences that aren’t documented in books or curated in museums but only exist as stories amongst people, Where Things are Different is a project that explores how fact and fiction operate within the context of community. This project would not have been possible without the help, support, collaboration and kindness of the people of St Helens. Stephen King and Heart of Glass would especially like to thank: Photograph Participants: Mike Skidmore, Richard Jacques, Chris Dancer, Phill Campbell, Ste Littler, Tim Hanrahan, Carol Stevenson, Graham Auld, David Goldsmith, Ant Shea, John Murray, Olly Ford, Stephen Banning, Mike Lindley, Ryan Ballans, Kevin Thomas, Bradley Roach, Josh Selfridge, Jack Bridge, Ian Greenall, Bethany Mountain, Diane Bate,
Allan Nicol, Keith Hyland, Tony Fillingham, Cath Shea, Ste Thomas, Gary Conley, Kate Tatlock, Georgia McClymont, Mike Skidmore, Marie Rimmer, Hannah Morton & students, Frank Leech, Chris Sephton, Ste Moyers, Mel Moran, Andrew Delahunty, Sue Brown, Stewart Brown, Vasu Joshi, Gordon Pennington, Nikki Ellison, Warwick Webb Chan Stories: Mike Skidmore, John Barton, Enid Pennington , Bea Tinsley, Gary Conley, Steve Mawdsley, Steve Moyers, Ian Gibbons, Nita Ashcroft, Eric Ashcroft, Chris Sephton, Frank Leech, Mel Moran, Dave Stevens, Tommy Frodsham, Terry Murray, Chrissie Tiller, Chris Coffey Organisations: North West Museum of Road Transport, The Greyhound Trust Mersey and Cheshire, Penlake Juniors AFC, The Forestry Commission, Windle Labour Club, The Circus House, NSG, Pilkington’s Family Trust, St Helens Historic Society, Sankey Canal Restoration Society, The Open Eye Gallery, The World of Glass, St Helens College, Rainford Sixth Form
King worked closely for several months with members and groups of St Helens post-industrial communities Beechams, Pilkingtons, historical and restoration societies, miners and labour club entertainers. His project sought to unearth the shared experience that resides within these now displaced workforces. Taking the form of social get-togethers, many hours of informal conversations were recorded and then transcribed to create sources for unpicking accounts and imagery. Many of these same participants and community members went on to collaborate and perform in King’s images, many of which were constructed reenactments of memories. The final photographs take the form of large-scale (2.5 x 2m) light boxes on the banks of the Sankey Canal. Located at the back of Pilkington’s Glass Works, for decades pipes pumped out warm water from the glass making process into this section of canal, known locally as The Hotties, which - according to folklore - for many years supported a thriving ecosystem of tropical fish, discarded by a local pet shop owner.
“A dynasty in glass, residing in unity, celebrating collectively. Hearing the gathering and the roar the young girl watched the crescendo of the allied effort to protect the woodpile. Doors bubbled under the intensity and panes cracked in their frames with the proximity. Never any trouble...”
The pill was black and from what looked like a big block of tar, but yellow was seen to be more appetising. Spun 12lb a time, in a large drum until the coating left the pill coloured with a high shine. With no previous experience, three of us took three and a half years constructing two football fields, a cricket wicket and a rugby pitch... we hand-dug a heated swimming pool and finally got a large wooden Pavillion. We had dances, weddings, retirements and significant birthdays, all upon our tiled floor. Problems began and most evenings and all-day Friday, we’d walk in line, buckets collecting the emerging glass fragments‌ the old Corporation Tip prevailing. I returned to the factory and the Pavillion burned down.
On Friday, once the rest of the Colliery had gone home, only two factions from the same camp remained, The Fitters and The Electricians. It was a race to the top, whoever got to that horizon first had the strategic ground, the barriers would be down and with The Dambusters March crackling over the Tannoy the fire extinguishers would be let off on to the emerging counterparts. For four years a bonus scheme to produce more coal that couldn’t be sold
created a surplus. Stockpiling, stockpiling, stockpiled... and then they went on strike. We were digging our own graves and we didn’t even realise. Wreaths were sent through the post to fit young men. It was strange going back to work, strange. As a little girl the truck passed-by with all these convicts, I was so upset and then another with devils on. Dad would say “If you do that again” the Devil would come and get me. It stays in your mind... A man carried a ball, running a
distance and standing on it statue still until the procession caught up and then off again. Communities came together with ideas and elements of where you worked for carnivals and street processions. If they had a talent, or even just a bit of a talent, anyone could join in. Singers, comedians, strippers, magicians, you name it… clubland was a career path for some. Barlow turned up, 17 years old in a little dickie bow and a smart shirt… nice lad, couldn’t sing to save his life
though, so far off pitch it was painful. A guy swallowed things and then regurgitated them in a different order and finished off with the snooker balls. He’d just swallow them down. “what order do you want me to bring them back up in?” Roy Rivers adapted his turn for clubland on this unicycle, “what’s the round then?” “clear the path” His tray filled with beer… he went for hours, he never spilled a drip.
Lady Pilkington - the wife of Harry - bore the brunt of the workers’ anger. She made an unannounced appearance. Blue fitted coat, nonchalantly strolling unnoticed for half an hour, but as soon as the gathering began to disperse, she was spotted and drama began to unfold… Rank and file swarmed. “would your old man work for £12 a week?” Mavis calmly exited through the crowd.
Within the shadow of the Ravenhead Works, a boy and his friends would play in the claypits off Elm Road. The site of long-gone industries and the dumping ground of the recent, the clay would often give up its wealth of treasures. Gas masks dumped after the war, yellow pottery Lemon Curd pots from the original Clay and Brick Works and glass marbles - a byproduct from the quenching of spillage in plate glass production.
Photostories
“4 billion photographs per day are uploaded onto social media. Photography is now as important as text or verbal communication in the stories we tell about our lives.” Sarah Fisher, Executive Director, Open Eye Gallery
Culture Shifts doesn’t end here. Contributing to the project is open to all through PhotoStories, our new online showcasing platform: photostories.org.uk. Photostories showcases the result of our Culture Shifts collaborative photography projects, but the platform is also open to anyone. There are resources on the site to help you think about the way you capture, select and curate your own digital exhibition of images. Everyone is invited to upload photo stories - sequences of photos - that reflect on the people, places and communities that make up your experience of the world. More and more, we are using photography to communicate to each other. But just like verbal or written language, we must use photography to communicate responsibly and effectively. To join in, get a free PhotoStories account. photostories.org.uk
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