Bank Top – congregation not segregation during COVID-19
Published 08 May 2021
CREDIT: Craig Easton
The series, Bank Top, is partly the result of many years of inter-related projects I’ve been working on across the north of England. In much of my work, I can see concerns and themes that have developed over the years – the same concerns that made me want to be a photographer in the first place and Bank Top is a continuation of that.
Paul Strand once said,
“I want to use photography as an instrument of research into and reporting on the life of my own time”; I think that is very much my approach. I’d like the work I make to have a value beyond the news agenda and to stand as a testament to the times we are living in for future generations. That may be a grand aim and I may not always achieve it, but when I look back in history it is the work of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Lewis Hine, Paul Strand and countless others that have given me a perspective on history. Today there are people like LaToya Ruby Frazier following in their footsteps and I really believe that that work is critically important. It’s important to create a visual record of our cultural, social and political history and if I can add a little bit to that conversation then I’ll be satisfied.