In the beginning of 2024, I started to produce an extended project about some of the current social issues we are facing in the UK and around the world
By definition social issues, ‘are topics or subjects that impact people. They often reflect current events but also represent longstanding problems or disagreements that are difficult to solve. Beliefs, opinions, and viewpoints can be strong and debate on these topics is natural outcome of public discourse’.
I wanted to use my lens to shed light on some of these issues we need to be talking about. Some of which can be seen below.
The Class Divide
The social stratification of the UK is apparent in our daily lives, from what we wear to how we treat each other. I focused on this element of social issues as it is amplified by location. The Class divide is emphasised across the Uk due to a numerous of factors but the North/South Divide also comes into consideration here. As a result of a person’s class it can often affect their health, ability to receive adequate medical care and nutrition (even with a free healthcare system) and affect a person’s life expectancy. Ultimately it expands to opportunities and services people can have access to.
For this photoshoot, I used two different neighbourhoods from across the UK (Hyde Park, Leeds and knightsbridge, London) to amplify how different places can be divided by wealth and class. I carried this out by using compositional editing to form collages.
Overtourism
Overtourism – “The phenomenon whereby certain places of interest are visited by excessive numbers of tourists, causing undesirable effects of the places visited”
Tourism is one of the most influential and important sectors for the economy of different countries. It has become a reliable source of income and dependency for different countries on a local and regional scale that creates jobs and opportunities for places based on locations. On the whole, tourism is good and with the introduction of eco-tourism in places like, Costa Rica, it has become more sustainable and self-sufficient in producing a steady income. However, tourism is slowly becoming more of an issue. When over-tourism occurs it creates damage to the local ecosystems and damages the architecture and environment of a place. It makes a place become undesirable and unliveable forcing people out of a place. It also creates tension and conflict in a place due to the disapproval and supposed ‘hatred’ of tourists due to the belief that they have ruined a place and caused destruction.
Over-tourism becomes more of an issue as it is a difficult and hard thing to try and manage or even ‘solve’. For this project, I wanted to focus on the number of people to try and communicate the feeling of overtourism. I did this through creating composite manipulations of the crowds in Venice at some its most famous landmarks.
Coming Together
After studying different social issues, I wanted to look at ways we come together to reduce the divide.
After establishing a ceasefire in Belfast after the Troubles, peace was established that has joined the two sides (Catholics and Protestants) together, yet the division walls still exist. Known as the “peace wall“, it has become a symbol of harmony for different global differences and a symbol of what coming together can achieve.
Raising Awareness
At the end of my project I wanted to develop a way to showcase some of the statistics I have learnt through my research. Imitating symbols of protesting, like placards, i created my own fly-posters and put them around Leeds. All in hopes of spreading awareness.