Degree Project: MA Design for Art Direction
Final Major Project: Thesis
The Southerners book is a half essay and half photo series exploration of one of London’s many under-resourced urban landscapes, Croydon. It encapsulates a year's worth of research around the privatisation of the built environment and its impact on youth culture. As is the case in similar working-class communities, the youth population is saddled with a reputation for crime and antisocial behaviour while seeing their town deteriorate as they come of age.
The photos in the second half are hand-printed with suncream and only visible under UV light to personify the view of outsiders. It’s common for people not from the area to profile the borough’s young people with decades-old stereotypes while being in the dark about Croydon’s historical context.
So, the book shines this attention onto the makeshift communal spaces left for the area’s youth by giving a tour of over 30 spaces including lesser-known pockets that have produced some of the UK creative scene’s biggest names.
Featured in the Saatchi Gallery and OXO Tower for the StArt Art Fair, 2022.
Role(s): Photography, Printmaking, Book Design [and everything else].