GRAIN Projects are working in collaboration with SAND and artist Ming de Nasty to make a collection of empowering portraits of older LGBT+ residents in Shropshire.

The project will focus on expression and celebration and will highlight lived experiences of those taking part. There will be 12 participants from across Shropshire who will make the portraits with Ming and speak of the story behind the picture.

The project will provide an opportunity for individuals to tell their story and control their image.  Ming de Nasty’s photography offers a different perspective, with individuals expressing a confidence and sense of identity in their gaze and position.  Her portraits are acclaimed and award-winning and speak of diversity and challenging stereotypes.

Ming de Nasty has been a professional photographer for 35 years and has worked on projects locally and nationally, exhibiting widely throughout the UK.  Her most recent projects include ‘Queer Country’ a photographic project looking at queer-identifying individuals in Wales and what it means to be living in a rural environment; ‘Tagmasc’, for Birmingham’s SHOUT! Festival 2020, where she worked with queer identifying men in Birmingham to make a series of photographic portraits and audio monologues; and in 2018 a Residency with IKON Gallery, Birmingham to undertake a commission on The Slow Boat, working with asylum seeking women to create a photographic installation along the Birmingham Canal of their portraits which were printed and displayed 3 metres high on buildings along the waterway. 

The project is a partnership between SAND and GRAIN Projects, supported by Arts Council England.  

Image credit; Mike Southern by Ming de Nasty