Projects >> BEYOND THE FACADE

Early in 1989 'The Evening Argus', Brighton's local newspaper, ran a story declaring the town to be the wealthiest in Britain.

This rather spurious claim was based on criteria which had little to do with 'ordinary people' and inspired my friend and colleague Jim Cooke and I to produce 'Beyond the Facade'.

Brighton had a reputation as a glitzy, cosmopolitan and somewhat sleazy place, and Jim set out to photograph this 'facade'. Meanwhile,I  worked with a number of the towns homeless population, a phenomenon less evident than it is today, but present nonetheless, and in surprisingly large numbers.

Sadly, and frustratingly, the work was deemed 'too parochial' by galleries in the midlands and north of England (the photographers were, after all, challenging the very idea of the north/south devide) and the exhibition was only seen in Brighton itself - which was rather self-defeating - and published in Spain.