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Photography Festival

 

Women and Alcohol - and Control - is n London, part of the Photomonth Festival.

Opens on Monday Oct 3 until Saturday October 29

Opening times: Mon-Fri
9.30am-9.30pm and Saturday 10am-2pm.

Venue:
Oxford House
Derbyshire Street
Bethnal Green
London E2 6HG

This exhibition was previouslyat the Baltic Warehouse, 43 New Bird Street, Liverpool (near CUC/NOVAS) in May and June, 2001.

 

London Photomonth 2011

by Garry Cook

Women and Alcohol, from the collaborative project Control, is part London's Photomonth Festival in 2011.

 

The nine photographers who make up Control have taken over Oxford House in Bethnal Green to exhibit their work which was the result of a Redeye project conceived in September 2010.

 

My project - Women and Alcohol - was shot entirely in Liverpool during the first few months of 2011. It was first exhibited during the Look2011 International Photography Festival in the city.

 

You can see the other work in Control at The Photo Group website here.

 

Here is some text about Liverpool, Look2011 and the original exhibition:

 

While areas of Merseyside remain as rundown and neglected as their popular stereotypification, the city centre has undergone a remarkable transformation.

If you visited Liverpool a decade ago you probably would not recognise much of the city today. Part of its rejuvenation has come through the installation of a long-running cultural programme.

The highlight of this initiative was the European City of Culture year in 2008 – but that was just one strand of arts events that have taken place in the city.

And Look2011 is part of this aim to keep Liverpool at the forefront of the art and culture in Britain. Certainly in the northwest, think arts, think Liverpool. To that end the aim has succeeded. Liverpool is streets ahead of traditional rivals Manchester.

As a member of Lightbox, a Redeye group of photographers formed in 2010, this work forms part of a group exhibition exploring the festival’s themes of A Call To Action and Is Seeing Believing? (so good they catchlined it twice).

Meeting monthly in a (fairly) luxurious pub, the group is headed by world-renowned publisher Dewi Lewis and involves photographers whose past work include stolen shots of people sunbathing and images of dumped abandoned vehicles. It’s a diverse mix, believe me. You only have to see the portrait of a bloke with his face covered in raw steaks to realise this.

This project I have documented Scouse women* in social situations – namely enjoying a big Saturday night out. The thread through these images is the role of alcohol in people’s lives.

Look 2011 begins from May 13 to June 26, though many of the major exhibitions run for longer. The Look2011 website is here.

 

The images features here include shots taken in addition to those included in the exhibition.

 

The website for this exhibition is this one called thephotogroup.co.uk

*Due to the popularity of Liverpool some of those photographed may not necessarily be Scouse.

All images © Copyright Garry Cook