In 2007, whilst studying photography at Staffordshire University, I developed a fascination with my immediate environment. I would spend hours driving and walking different areas of the city, studying the topography of a somewhat familiar landscape. I was concerned with how each photograph could provide me with a framework for further enquiry. This act was a eureka moment for me, one of liberation. The camera prompted the possibility to experience, and to see a place properly for the first time, and an ongoing study commenced.
I began to explore collections of images, rather than the single image, and started to experiment with the photobook as a tool to order these collections. In 2016 I co-founded out of place books – a platform to promote photobooks as ways of learning about specific places, which have contributed to ethographic research about specific communities and places. To date, I have self-published several photobooks, contributing collections to The Photographers’ Gallery, The Martin Parr Foundation, the Bavarian library and more locally, the Stoke-on-Trent City Archives.
In 2017, I began working with a team of community development workers, using my photographic practice to asset-map specific areas within the city. Here I collaborated with local residents and partners, resulting in several community zines that helped to establish an understanding of their environment. My work has contributed to various health and wellbeing initiatives across the city of Stoke-on-Trent.
Stoke-on-Trent remains a place that is central to my practice. Each project is individual, with an individual approach. In 2021 I remain interested in photography’s role in discourse regarding regeneration, community cohesion and of course, culture.
e daniellyttleton@hotmail.co.uk
t 07495 921672