Real Utopias - Newhaven Participatory Portraits

Digital photographic images.
Commissioned by Brighton Photo Fringe.
2022


Commissioned by Brighton Photo Fringe as part of their Real Utopias project 2022 and conceived as a pop-up portrait studio. This participatory project took place in the port town of Newhaven on the East Sussex coast, one of most deprived areas of the South East of England.

Throughout a single afternoon, participants were given free reign to describe or draw utopian ideas for the town and wider society. As part of this process they each had a portrait photograph taken (either solo or in groups) while describing their ideas. Finally, their responses were added to a wall-mounted ‘collage’ as a way to create dialogue, mark the day, and for visitors to engage with.