I managed to get up to Leeds for the Living Exhibition into which I’d entered one of my photographs. The exhibition stipulated that submissions should summarise what it meant to be alive in 2019, in black and white. A difficult brief but I chose the image below which was taken at a festival in Spain a few years ago. I think it shows a human spirit that I hope will prevail in these turbulent times – we can be a caring and sharing species, despite personal hardship so I thought this summed up what I feel we need to survive the significant challenges we and our planet are facing.
The exhibition itself was a lovely casual event upstairs in the very cool Brunswick, populated by a range of creative people and students. Sophie, the organiser, was a final year degree student and she did a fine job of curating the show, presenting the images digitally and producing a great booklet to take away. It was packed with people and I had some interesting conversations with local photographers and artists – what became clear is that there is a thriving creative community in Leeds so events and exhibitions in this area are definitely worth looking out for.