Kids snap up a new hobby with photography project at GWH (From Swindon Advertiser)

Kids snap up a new hobby with photography project at GWH

8:40am Friday 8th February 2013 in News By Katie Bond

YOUNG people from across the town have been exploring 70 years of Swindon through photographs and digital art.

And their work is currently brightening up the corridors at the Great Western Hospital.

The Back To Black And White exhibition is inspired by local photographer Albert Beaney’s collection of 40,000 photographs of residents from the 1940s to 1970s.

More than 130 young people from four schools have taken part in the exhibition, which was organised by Create Studios and funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund’s Young Roots Programme.

In response to Albert Beaney’s photographic collection, members of the Swindon Youth Forum created their own works of art, which were exhibited at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery last year and are now on display at the GWH.

Thomas and Calum Marsh, 15, of Park North, took part in the project.

Calum, whose picture of family members enjoying a bouncy castle birthday party is on display, said: “I’m really pleased to see my photograph on display, but I am mainly proud that it hasn’t just been thrown in a bin or hidden away in an attic, it is actually on the wall for everybody to see.

“It has really got me in to photography and I am thinking of taking it as an A-level at college. It has really inspired me in so many ways.”

His brother Thomas, whose picture of his younger sister Tayla was also part of the exhibition, said: “We had very little knowledge of photography before this project but it got us really interested, we’ve both got cameras now.”

The youngsters worked with digital artist Dani Landau to use a range of approaches, including traditional and cutting edge photography techniques.

David Moss, the deputy general manager for diagnostics and outpatients, who is part of the GWH’s Arts Committee, said he was impressed with the exhibition.

“We contacted Create Studios to see if they had anybody creating anything around the Swindon way of life to make use of the space we have at the hospital,” he said. “I think the exhibition is fantastic, they’ve done a really great job.”

Another member of the Arts Committee, Steve Henderson, who is chaplain at the GWH, said: “The art really does change the environment and it gets people talking.

“A hospital can be a very utilitarian place but the art makes people think about other things and it can also be a great way-finder – despite all the signage dotted around, the art can really help people find their way around, because many of them can feel quite overwhelmed.

“Considering it has been done by a group of young people, it is a very creative and novel idea, and it actually shows a group of youngsters who have got an awareness about generations in a positive sense.”

For more information on Create Studios and future exhibitions visit www.createstudios.org.uk.