Ferry Folk

Ferry Folk is the result of this collaborative photography project, and is presented across Museum of Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery and digitally via photostories.org.uk Working closely with the Mersey Ferries staff, commuters and daily tourists, I created opportunities for individual’s stories and memories of the ferry to be shared. Working closely with local people and those with connections to the Ferry, subjects in-fact became collaborators, with different individuals responding to the invitation to participate in a variety of ways. At the Museum of Liverpool we are presented with two distinct but interlinked works. A series of photo stories, that play throughout the day in the Museum of Liverpool’s digital atrium screen. These works represent a series of in-depth and ongoing collaborations between myself and a series of local residents who I met with on the Ferry. The images not only capture their time on the ferry but extend out to reflect their wider life story. A selection of these images have also been created in collaboration with local Over60s group, the Digital Ambassadors – creating their own artwork in response to their first experience of the Mersey ferries and trips down memory lane to New Brighton. A wider selection of photographs portraying the both the landscape and people who make up the ferry are showcased within an interactive Pier Head viewfinder, installed at the Museum of Liverpool’s very own The People’s Republic Gallery. With this work the invitation is for the public to participate by selecting and interacting with the images they wish to view. A photographic series of portraits, conversations and accompanying map work are exhibited on the exterior of Open Eye Gallery’s building to reflecting these dialogues of those I met along the way. Thanks to C. Rob Battersby for the wonderful opening night shots!