Hope. Despair. Miracles. Waterside’s new exhibition celebrating Longsight’s unseen changemakers
Waterside has announced Hope. Despair. Miracles., a photographic project that celebrates the grassroots organisations and individuals that contribute towards positive change, especially in working-class multi-ethnic neighbourhoods. The exhibition opens at Waterside in Sale on Saturday 27 January.
© Roxana Allison
Mexican-British social documentary photographer Roxana Allison was born in Manchester, grew up in Mexico City, and returned to live in the UK in 2008. Her mixed cultural upbringing strongly influences her photographic work and focuses on themes of place, belonging and community through portraiture and documentary photography.
Roxana Allison’s Hope. Despair. Miracles. features portraits, landscapes and written word and showcases Longsight, in southeast Manchester: a working-class neighbourhood rich in ethnic diversity, yet long-associated – sometimes unfairly – with its complex social issues. Allison’s singular, insightful visual narrative shows Longsight in a new light.
The exhibition introduces the exceptional people devoted to growing food and improving the area’s streets, those providing quality and affordable housing, mutual support, art, music, sport, and safe spaces to learn and grow. It invites audiences to recognise the agents of change genuinely transforming people’s lives in multicultural working-class neighbourhoods across the UK – reminding people to never judge a book, or a place, by its front cover.
In a post-Brexit UK and post-Covid world that is enduring a cost-of-living crisis, Hope. Despair. Miracles. explores the idea of hope through action and that people-led change is attainable through the power of togetherness.
Two portraits included in the exhibition (see above), are winners of The British Journal of Photography Portrait of Britain Vol. 6 Award 2023 and will also be part of the public outdoor exhibition sponsored by JCDecaux across the country.
Photographer Roxana Allison says: “This exhibition aims to inspire hope - the images invite us to find beauty in the ordinary and shift our focus on the small wins, those that happen within our own sphere. These wins, in the face of great odds, can seem like miracles. If you take a deeper look beyond the surface layer, there’s so much hope there, but you can’t see it straight away.”
🗓️ Hope. Despair. Miracles. runs from Saturday 27 January – Saturday 13 April 2024 (preview event on Thursday 25 January, 6-8pm. This is a free drop-in event.
🕙 Open Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm | Free entry
📍Lauriston Gallery, Waterside, Sale M33 7ZF
Images © Roxana Allison
