Coming of age collectively
This month will see me once again stomping around in the cold wet flower beds of Soho Square. I have been doing this in the last week of February for the last eighteen years. That’s a landmark age. Especially for a college project. I say that like it’s a small feat; when it really, really isn’t.
24Photography was conceived in 2003 by two postgraduate students on a fine art photography course at Central St Martins. They pitched this idea to the rest of the class who agreed it was a worthy concept and would be presented as an interim exhibition mid semester. It ticked the right boxes, mathematically, artistically and collectively. It was to be a documentary of the first 24 hours of the New Year 2004 –we were 24 candidates; 24 hours in the day. Tick. We were all exploring the mediums of photography, and the concept of documentary through more than one lens. It was a lot of work to begin with, and we were determined to play to our strengths and learn from one another.
The first exhibition was held at 100 Wardour Street in the café, for 24 days. It was reviewed in Metro. It was eclectic, unique and responsive to a new century. We were high on our success. With the end of the course in sight and all of us considering our future paths, we decided to push this documentary further. We would commit to it, (all of us) for the next 24 years.
Although I do consider this to be a really great achievement, it hasn’t been without its challenges. We aren’t mainstream. We completely fund the project ourselves, between the artists. We have had incredible support over the years consistently, without which we probably wouldn’t have survived this long. It requires year round hustle from the core group. Although in principle the same concept, we have had to evolve and mould over time in order to survive. We’ve had to recruit new artists and within that work hard at maintaining the original manifesto of the project and curate ourselves.
All things considered, it’s a miracle we are able to present the show in our usual physical format of waterproof photographs installed in the flowerbeds of the square. The exhibition has taken different forms over the years, but this is the one that we are best known for and the one that we all love the most. It probably won’t have its familiar footfall of tens of thousands, but we’ll be there regardless. To keep calm and carry on is important in times like these. Everybody will have celebrated at least one lockdown birthday and 24photography is no exception. Eighteen is a coming of age, old enough to know better and yet have a sense of identity but still green enough to absorb the world around us, outwardly displaying whatever is relevant on the day of capture.
As an artist, I now realise the relevance of the project. My own contributions within it could be stronger, I don’t love all of them but they are relevant in what has been a deeply personal journey; one to realise my own achievements and conquests, some of which have completely taken me by surprise with their timeliness.
Six years remain. 2020 turned the documentary into something much bigger than we could ever have imagined it would become by displaying an unsettled world and much uncertainty that was felt by all. Yet the emergence of individual stories that have developed in that time will continue insightfully and personally.
24:2021 Soho Square WC2 24th February 2021 -19th March 2021