Images capture challenges of 2020s Britain, photographer says

Easton said he hoped the work would "stand as an historical record of the challenges we face in 2020s Britain"

A new exhibition will document modern life and the "challenges we face in 2020s Britain", its creator has said.

Photographer Craig Easton will take Is Anybody Listening? to galleries in Liverpool, Salford, Blackpool and Birkenhead across the next 15 months.

He will also work with eight young photographers as part of an accompanying engagement programme.

He said he hoped their work together would stand as a "historical record" of the current state of the country.

Is Anybody Listening? will tour across four locations in Salford, Blackpool, Liverpool and Birkenhead

The exhibition is being backed by the University of Salford, which said Easton, who won Photographer of the Year at the Sony World Photography Awards in 2021, was "a long-time advocate for authentically representing communities in the North".

A representative said the show, which runs at Liverpool's Open Eye Gallery until 26 February before moving on to Blackpool's LeftCoast, Salford's New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery and Birkenhead's Williamson Art Gallery, sought to "challenge stereotypes and raise aspirations of young people within the region".

They said the engagement programme, titled Our Time, Our Place, would "empower young people to discuss current issues, explore their own history, and share it through pathways in photography and associated practices".

Craig Easton was named as Photographer of the Year in 2021 for his work on the representation of communities in northern England

Easton said he believed in the "importance of committed documentary photography as a visual record of our social and cultural history".

"As such, I'm excited to be part of the Our Time, Our Place programme to encourage and support young people across the region to find their own ways to express their concerns, examine our ever-changing society and explore our communities," he said.

"I hope that between us all we can make work that will, for years to come, stand as an historical record of the challenges we face in 2020s Britain."

The University of Salford said Easton was "a long-time advocate for authentically representing communities in the North"

The University of Salford's art collection curator Lindsay Taylor said the aim of the project was "to instil pride and inspire communities to shed a new light on their heritage through photography".

"We hope to empower marginalised voices to explore their own social history through a lens," she added.

Easton said "committed documentary photography" was important as "a visual record of our social and cultural history"