For my final assignment, I have
chosen to create a set of images around the concept of gentrification, quite
prevalent in Britain’s more trendy cities such as London, Brighton and
Manchester. The links between gentrification, displacement and homelessness are
devastating for many residents.
Inspired by some of the creative solutions to similar issues in Los Angeles, I chose to create a mock-up living
space, using volunteers to produce a set of overexaggerated homelife
situations. The city they have been forced to leave provides the backdrop to
the scene.
Dan Hancox, having visited some of
London’s victims of gentrification, compares the process to climate change:
“Contemporary gentrification is an
often violent process by which a complex and diverse urban environment becomes
more homogeneous and exclusionary. It does to neighborhoods and cities what
climate change is doing to the earth: driving out fragile and deeply rooted
species, and pushing the poor past the brink.” (Hancox D. 2016)
I felt it fitting to use a location
that has recently suffered at the hands of climate change as the setting for
this project.
Visual inspiration for the shoot came from Domenico Dolce’s ITALIA IS LOVE! campaign and wartime artwork such as the ‘We can do it!’ propaganda poster by J. Howard Miller.
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