Over summer, young musicians from Big Noise Govanhill had the enormous pleasure of teaming up with award-winning photographer, Simon Murphy, to capture the streets of Govanhill in a National Galleries of Scotland photography project.
The project was inspired by the work of historic photographer Thomas Annan, who recorded the lives and streets of Glasgow in the 1800s.
Simon, who has won awards including the Scottish Portrait Awards, the Sony World Photography Prize, and Portrait of Humanity, is known for his black-and-white style.
A familiar face in the local area, he has spent 16 years documenting the community of Govanhill, and has had this work published as a photography book, 'GOVANHILL'.
For this project, he teamed up with Sistema Scotland and the National Galleries to work with young people from Big Noise Govanhill; running a series of urban photography workshops, teaching and supporting the group to capture the place they live through their own eyes and to document what is important to them.
The group explored the streets of Govanhill with Simon, practising their newly found photography skills and capturing creative images of their local area. As well as running the workshops, Murphy also captured stunning portrait photography of our young musicians in his signature black and white style. Check out some of the images from the project below.
National Galleries of Scotland outreach programme designs and delivers creative learning projects that connect with communities across Scotland, who might face challenges to accessing, engaging with and enjoying our national collection of art.
Work from the project was displayed at Big Noise Govanhill as part of an end-of-term community gathering for friends and family to enjoy.
Big Noise Govanhill participant, Rehan, said:
“It was fun just exploring and photographing the local area. I’ve never really done photography or anything like that before, and even though I live in Govanhill, we were discovering places and things I’ve never noticed before.
You look at things differently when you’re taking photos, it’s definitely made me more interested in photography, and going around with Simon was really cool because he does this a lot, he knew everyone, and he’s been taking photographs of Govanhill for a long time."
Simon Murphy said:
"Working with the young people of Govanhill, the National Galleries of Scotland and Big Noise is very special for me as it's a chance to pass on my experiences and open young eyes to the possibility that art can play a part in shaping their futures. Photography isn't just about memory but it's about futures. It's also a whole lot of fun.
Seeing the reactions of the young people to their images of their own community being displayed, and the sense of pride it gave not only them but the community members too, was incredibly rewarding.”
Ailbhe Turley, outreach coordinator at National Galleries of Scotland, said:
“National Galleries of Scotland are proud to continue to develop our creative outreach partnership with Big Noise and Sistema Scotland. It was a joy to work alongside Simon and young people from Big Noise to capture images of the streets of Govanhill.
In this project we explored different issues that impact young people across Scotland today. Using photography as a creative exploratory medium, we wanted to amplify the voices and perspectives of some of those young people. The aim was to create a space where they felt they could express themselves, speak out about things that are important to them, and quite literally explore concepts of identity and community through their own lenses. The display of this work in the local community is an important way for us to recognise and platform those perspectives.”
Paul Sullivan, Sistema Scotland’s director for children, young people and communities, said:
“We are here to support young people in our communities to fulfil their potential, uncover their talents and help them get their voices heard on the issues that matter to them, and this photography project was a way we could do that.
We were delighted to work with Simon Murphy and extremely proud of the way our young people responded to the project. Their pieces give us an insight into modern Govanhill and the places and people that matter to our young people. We are hugely grateful to everyone involved for giving our young people this platform to share what matters to them.”
