Last house standing loses

Oops. Forgot to post this in October.

Homeless man dies in empty home

book

I’ve created a print-on-demand Streetfighters book featuring selected portraits and interviews while I work out how to move the project forward. The next step is I think going to be seeking grant funding, to allow me to visit affected neighbourhoods for a more significant period of time.

Amnesty Media Awards – honourable mention

I had some cracking news today. I’ve been told by Amnesty International that my Streetfighters project has received an honourable mention in this year’s AI Media Awards, in the digital category.

What makes this even more exciting is that the three shortlisted projects are all by well-funded major news organisations. They are:

Iraq War Logs, Bureau Of Investigative Journalism

Middle East Protests, Guardian Live Blog

and Pakistan Drone Warfare, Channel 4

It’s exciting to be in such esteemed company. Now I need to find a way to move this body of work forwards.

Streetfighters on BBC photo blog

My Streetfighters regeneration project was mentioned on the BBC picture editor, Phil Coomes’ blog today, along with a similar but different project by photographer Victoria Birkinshaw. I’m very grateful to him for supporting the work. I really want to take another look at this subject soon – I’ve just been struggling lately what with lots of uni and other journalistic work.

Derker news story, Big Issue in the North

The news story which follows on from the audio portrait of Joan Diggle in the previous post was published in the Big Issue in the North today and can be seen over here.

Joan Diggle – audio portrait

Joan Diggle has lived on her street for 77 years but is now the only resident left on her terrace. She doesn’t want to leave but the situation is becoming frightening and she would love to find a bungalow. In December 2010, however, the handful of households left in phase two of Oldham’s Derker regeneration area received a notice warning there was no money left to acquire their homes. The council blames this turn of events on government spending cuts which have left Oldham with £2m less in its coffers, with the long-term future of the national pathfinder scheme uncertain. Derker is now a ghost town, with grass and cherry trees standing in the place of many terraced homes which are already demolished.

community, interrupted

Today I went to the Wavertree/Edge Lane area of Liverpool for the first time in almost a year. This is how much it has changed during that time:

Legal land grab – photofilm

Maureen and Terry Walsh were part of a group of residents from Derker, Oldham, who went to the High Court in a bid to prevent the Compulsory Purchase and demolition of their properties. They lost.

(watch larger over here)

Life in limbo – photofilm

Alicia Rose moved to Liverpool (Wavertree) for a fresh start but quickly learned her new home was earmarked for demolition.

(watch larger over here)