Working with photographers Kelly O’Brien and Lewis Khan, new photography will be made based on research and socially engaged activities with the communities of Ashbourne, Derbyshire and Atherstone, Warwickshire, utilising vernacular photography to explore ideas and themes of class, gender and hidden histories.

Following workshops with a range of community groups, where photographs and oral histories will be shared, we will consider images, memories and stories, create new photography and text together, that represents place making and identity.

The football games, that date back to Medieval times, take place annually in Atherstone and Ashbourne in their streets and public spaces. Increasingly the matches are seen as eccentric rituals, as rural customs, about heritage and place.

Ashbourne, Derbyshire, is a market town that developed based on agriculture and farming. It is at the southern edge of the Peak District. It has no train station and one secondary school. Its market heritage is important and the traditional outdoor market still takes place twice a week. The town has hosted an annual Shrovetide ball game since at least 1667. Ashbourne’s working class heritage is one of farm workers and agriculture, specifically dairy. From 1910, Nestlé had a creamery in the town which was contracted to produce Carnation condensed milk. The factory had its own private sidings connected to the railway station goods yard, which allowed milk trains to access the facility and distribute product nationally. After milk trains ceased in 1965, the railway track was lifted as passenger services and the railway station had already been closed in 1954. The factory closed in 2003 and, since demolition in 2006, has been redeveloped. Ashbourne is now a town of independent shops and is a key part of Peak District tourism.

Atherstone, Warwickshire, is a market town located in the far north of the county, adjacent to the border with Leicestershire. Atherstone became a centre for traditional crafts and manufacture including leatherworking, clothmaking, metalworking, brewing and most notably hatting. All traditional industries declined during the 1970s and 80s. Atherstone has one secondary school. The town hosts the Shrove Tuesday Ball Game in the streets, which has been played annually since 1199. Atherstone’s heritage is as an important hatting town. It became well known for its felt hat industry beginning in the 17th century, and at its height in the early 20th century there were seven firms employing 3,000 people. The production of felt hats in the town ceased altogether with the closure of the Wilson & Stafford factory in 1999.

About Kelly O’Brien:
Kelly is an Artist, Facilitator, Researcher, Educator who was raised within a vibrant Irish immigrant and working-class community in Derby, East Midlands (UK). Her practice is shaped by lived experiences of interconnectivity and the politics of in/visibility. She works to reconfigure traditional documentary and photographic methods within an expanded, multi-disciplinary and auto-ethnographic framework. At the heart of her work is a critical exploration of absence, embracing invisibility as a potent space for reimagining visual possibilities. She is currently pursuing a funded, practice-based PhD at UWE Bristol, titled “A Labour Lens,” which examines the re-tracing and re-imagining of working-class women’s labour.
www.kelly-o-brien.com

About Lewis Khan
Lewis Khan b.1990 is a photographic artist born and raised in London. Working with stills and motion, his portrait based practice is a study of emotion, relationships and belonging. With a keen eye for observation and a personal interest in community as a driving force in his work. Lewis’ practice both acts as social commentary, and immerses him physically in the places, groups, and relationships pictured in his photographs and films.
www.lewiskhan.co.uk

Supported by Historic England Everyday Heritage Grant.

Image Credit: Working Mans Club – Are You There? 2018, by Kelly O’Brien

Top Image Credit: Lewis Khan