Photographers: Robert C Brady, Linda Brownlee, Lottie Davies, Craig Easton, Jillian Edelstein, Stuart Freedman, Sophie Gerrard, Kate Kirkwood, Kalpesh Lathigra, Roy Mehta, Christopher Nunn, Kate Peters, Simon Roberts, Michelle Sank, Abbie Trayler-Smith, plus the first of four specially selected students, David Copeland, MFA candidate at Ulster University.
In a major new touring exhibition leading contemporary photographers join forces to present the multimedia project Sixteen, exploring the dreams, hopes and fears of sixteen-year olds across the UK.
Photographer Craig Easton (alumnus of University of Salford) conceived this ambitious project following his engagement with sixteen year-olds at the time of the Scottish Referendum. It was the first, and as yet only, time that these young people were given the vote in the UK. Building on the success of that work he invited 16 of the UK’s foremost documentary portrait photographers to collaborate with young people across the country to make a visual vox pop on what it means to be sixteen now.
Sixteen is an age of transition, of developmental, and of social change. At this time of increasing national and international anxiety, these young people are shifting from adolescence to become the adults who will live in a politically reshaped country, divorced from the European Union.
Working with photography, film, social media, audio recordings and writing, the project brings together the faces and voices of more than a hundred young people from diverse communities across the United Kingdom. Locations span large conurbations such as London, Birmingham and Manchester, the South West, Northern Ireland, the Scottish Islands, and post-industrial areas of the North.
The photographers open up conversations with these young people about their hopes and fears, and who or what sustains them, giving prominence to voices rarely heard. The project explores how social background, personal histories, gender, beliefs, ethnicity, and location all might influence aspiration.
Public Preview: Friday 15 February 2019, 4.30pm New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery & Atrium, University of Salford, and 7.30pm at HOME, Manchester
Prior to the preview: Sixteen: talk and panel discussion
Photographers Craig Easton, Michelle Sank and Jillian Edelstein discuss their contributions to the multimedia project Sixteen.
Date: Friday 15 February, 2 – 4pm
Venue: Lady Hale Lecture Theatre, University of Salford, M5 4NT
Admission: Free, booking required.
Exhibition Dates: Monday 18 February – Friday 10 May 2019
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 10am – 4pm
Venue: New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery & Atrium, Salford M5 4BR
Thanks to a National Lottery grant from Arts Council England Sixteen will tour nationally, starting in February 2019 with exhibitions in North West England and in March at FORMAT19, Derby.
HOME, 16 February – 17 March 2019
2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester M15 4FN
Manchester Central Library, 17 February – 15 April 2019
St Peter’s Square, Manchester M2 5PD
42nd Street & Horsfall Space, 16 February – 8 March 2019
87-91 Great Ancoats St, Manchester M4 5AG
Touring to: FORMAT international photography festival, Derby, 14 March – 14 April 2019
Widnes Vikings Rugby Club, Opening May 2019
Lower House Lane, Widnes WA8 7DZ
Online: Twitter @sixteentouring / Instagram @sixteen_touring