Liverpool 2008

This work is a documentation that looks at the ways in which the city of Liverpool has used the funding awarded to it when, over four and a half years ago, it was awarded the prized status of being named European Capital of Culture 2008. Of all the city's ideas and proposals it was the attitude portrayed that this award would embrace the entire city and allow for renewed unity throughout that swayed the opinion of the awarding judges.

I have explored the areas of Liverpool's city centre that has benefited from the funding and has used this to begin a major regeneration programme, an initiative that the governors of Liverpool see as a chance for a fresh start. However, this work also explores the places on the outskirts of the city, places that for decades have been declining into pockets of deprivation and poverty and had been assured of change and development if Liverpool won the funding. The images of these areas show the abandonment of forgotten people and families and the sense of isolation when all around them millions of pounds are being distributed to the business sectors of the city centre, highly priced, short-term art installations and the development of modern buildings that appear to deminish the tradition of the city's grand architecture.