creativediarist

Ghost Streets Pt. 2. (2012) A second series of images documenting the demolition of Lower Broughton Council Estate in Salford. During my second visit, nearly all the families had been moved out of their houses and only a few still remained living amongst the rubble. A third body of work will be put together during my final visit in 2013 when all the houses will have eventually been demolished. This is the result of a ‘path finder’ scheme intended to attract private sector investment to improve housing stock and demand in the area. “Where the children once played, the street are desolate. Metal grilles have replaced front doors while bay windows are bricked up”. “We’ve lived in this area for 50 years and it was a superb community. There’s no community now, no children. All they’ve done is knock down houses, grass over the land and put little railings around. [...] There are times I can’t bring myself to walk up there. It’s distressing to see the shocking waste. These were perfect homes.” - BBC

Helen Stead's work is predominantly photography based and her most recent works have been an experimentation of social documentary and candid photography with the use of camera trap equipment, a device which is more commonly used by wildlife conservationists. Since 2011 she has been exploring the potential of these camera traps and utilising its motion sensor and infra red settings that are more typically used to capture photographs of animals in the wild. Helen have taken the trap out of its normal setting and have put it in a city environment in an attempt to document humans as ‘social animals’ and also reflect on how CCTV and surveillance is used in Britain. After rigorously testing different methods of using the traps it has produced a number of interesting results. The first body of works she ‘captured’ where taken by strapping the camera around her waist and recorded mapped journeys and walks around Salford and Manchester City Centre. The results are vivid, impressionistic landscapes of the environment which captured the movement of the city with a distorted and warped quality as the motion sensor was triggered rapidly as people and cars passed in front of the device. The second body of...

My idea is inspired by my living environment in the north of England (Salford in particular). Close to where I live there are roads and roads of houses that are derelict and due to be knocked down. I’m interested in the forgotten history of these places and would love to do some further research on the area, collect photographs from local people and project these images back into the original locations they were taken. Hopefully reflecting on times gone by and involving the community to trace their history of the place they belong to.

Latest mixed media work & alternative photography pieces. "My own work has been inspired by the subject of nostalgia, bitter-sweet childhood memories and a closer look into a personal family history. A collection of old family photographs, vintage wallpapers, albums, letters, books, telegrams and postcards were gathered to provide the foundation for part of this work"

My response to the editor's brief.

My response to the Editor's Brief: 'Fast'

I've been experimenting with a number of alternative ways of printing my digitial and analogue photographs and have tried printing on to mulberry and handmade paper, toilet roll, fabric, canvas and wood. Here is a selection of some of the resolved pieces.

5 photographs chosen to enter the Magnum in Motion Creative Brief

Selected work from an ongoing 'live project' based in Llandudno and Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Photographs were taken for initial research and then adapted and manipulated using mixed media techniques and image transfers. I'm interested in the subject of Phototherapy, bittersweet childhood memories, nostalgia and identity.