Welcome

17 May 18

Posted at 9:23

Welcome to my new Project 28 website and blog.

Project 28 has occupied me for the best part of the last two years. Soon after the UK's EU referendum my thoughts turned to the loss of freedom of movement and the gloomy predictions about unprecedented difficulties for UK citizens to even travel throughout the EU. No doubt wild predictions but never the less it got me thinking about travelling to and documenting a town in each of the then 28 EU member states. By August 2016 I was embarking on the first of eleven journeys required to visit my allocated town in each country. A year later I had completed the journeys and ready to progress to creating some output. I planned a photobook, something that has proved more difficult than I envisaged.

In November 2017 I created the montage below, made up of a single image from each of the 28 states. My friends at Bayeux Ltd printed and mounted a 60cm by 70cm version. I entered it for the Shutterhub Borders exhibition. After being selected for the online exhibition Shutterhub approached me with a view to doing a 'Close Up' on my project. It has been live for over three months now and has generated a lot of interest.

Project28 MontageProject 28 EU Montage

 

In early May this year the print was auctioned at a charity ball and raised £700 for GRITcharity

Having stalled for a few months struggling to settle on a book design, also struggling to arouse much interest from either publishers or investment in the project (so far I have self funded) I have now decided to initially produce an edition of handmade books. That will be a new experience for me that I am finding both exciting and motivating. The book will be a simple affair with just a single image from each town. Contrary to my initial intention I will not be documenting in the book details of my experiences and perceptions when travelling to the 28 towns. Instead once the book is published, well I should say self published, I will create a series of zines, either one for each town or journey. The zines will contain multiple images and recount my experiences along the way. Each will also be the subject of a blog post here

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