Collaborate: Where are you a local? [OPEN CALL NOW CLOSED]

“Everything interesting begins with one person in one place… No one comes out of nowhere; one room or town or locality can be made into an everywhere. The universal is the local, but with the walls taken away.”

John McGahern

This experimental, collective project invites responses to the question ‘where are you a local?’. ‘The local’ is a concept often perceived as a purely geographical construct. Yet, it is also where the nuances and complexity of daily life are found and replayed and where rituals and relationships are formed.

The notion of the local has become a central theme of my practice. This interest grew out of the development of a body of work that considered the village where I grew up. I photographed the community, the environment and the individuals that create the psychological framework of the village. I haven’t lived there for several years, yet there is part of me that still considers myself a local. Getting to this point prompted me to consider the local as something that stretches beyond geography. This work was particularly inspired by the writings of Taiye Selasi who describes herself as multi-local, and who states ‘my experience is where I am from’.

You (photographers, artists, writers, non-artists/writers)

You are invited to respond in any way which could then be translated and printed on the page; photographs, images or texts, found or archives images that represent your interpretation and personal experience of your local.

You might want to consider:

What is local? Does it go beyond geography and into the nuances of daily life?

Is there a place – or are there places that you have a particular connection to or affinity with? Are you multi-local?

Who are the people you engage with and relate to on a regular basis?

What experiences or environments shape your everyday? What objects have significance?

How?

Contact me! Then, send me between 5-10 images, and/or a few words or a text that encapsulate an expression of you and your local.

We will then arrange a time to meet (physically or virtually) to talk through your ideas and responses and work together to bring these to the page.

Latest date to collate your response and to have emailed me to arrange to meet: ~~Friday 30th July 2021~~ extended to Friday 6th August 2021.

I will be working with a number of people and at the end of this process all the responses will be brought together in one single publication.

Download the pdf here. This includes further submission details.