Invisible Britain: portraits of hope and resilience

Invisible Britain: portraits of hope and resilience

A key part of the project revolves around the book Invisible Britain: portraits of hope and resilience by Paul Sng as it shows people having come invisibly.

Book’s Description: 

Invisible Britain: Portraits of Hope and Resilience reveals untold stories from people who have been left out of the media narrative and left behind by government policy. Featuring the work of accomplished documentary photographers, the book presents people speaking in their own words to create a narrative showing how an unprecedented world of austerity, de-industrialisation and social upheaval is affecting us all. (Sng, 2019 )

From this description, I am going to take on the message from people feeling like that they must be hidden. The book shows the problem that is going on with life from the government cuts and how we have made people feel like that they have to be isolated in order to get on with life and be themselves.

What Is denoted & Connoted?

The book denotes portraits and text about the lives of people in the UK. The text and images are all done to be true stories to highlight what is going on. The book connotes the feeling of people who have become invisible because of social changes and problems that they have had from life. The book symbols how the photographers have documented them and how they have become invisible. When looking at the book the feeling starts of being sad and makes you pleased that you can understand what they have gone through and they are not alone. On all the pages with portraits, it has got text next to it to make it easier for people to understand what is going on and for people to understand the story.

How am I affected as a viewer?

When looking at the book the first thing that is seen is the cover and the foreword by Michael sheen explaining what the book is all about. The first impression on the book is full of negativity with people having become invisible but this was to change when looking at the images and what they are all about. The book repulses me with the way that they have been treated during their life with racism or being ignored as they are not rich. The book makes a political point that we needed to treat people the same.

What makes this work significant to you (and or your project)?

I have seen this book online with images and descriptions while looking at the book you can get the emotional connection to this work. The context of the work I have seen shows it is almost like a labour political Broadcast with the way it is connoted. While looking it online on news websites you get to read what people looking at the work thinks of this and it gives it more of an understanding. The work is significant to my project because it highlights how people have become Invisible from problems that they have faced. This links to cruel and tender because it shows negativity that they have faced making it cruel while they are all shot in a tender way.

What ideas will you take forward in your work, What Are the Strengths & Weakness?

I am going to change how the layout with mines I am going to take most of the text out and replace it with statistics as I am not going to be interviewing the subjects that I am going to shoot. The strengths of the book are how they have got the text explaining them by the image so people can understand what is going on. I think the weakness though with this book is that it does not have the flare of changing layouts to keep the user in engaged for longer this weakness I will remove in my work.

Who is the intended audience?

The work is done to be contemporary with the way it has been shot to highlight the current problems. The audience is done for people to wake up and understand what is going on now in time.

Is the work part of a bigger series?

The editor of the book has made other works showing the inequality of day to day Britain this has been designed to photographer the problem in the United Kingdom. This book has got some of the biggest collections of celebrates and photographers.

Any other information that you think is relevant? 

Most of the artists are supporters of Jeremy Corbyn and this makes it important to understand the political viewpoint coming from this. The editor is a campaigner for labour as well as the photographer shown in the works he has produced.

What context have you seen the work in?

I have seen this book online with images and descriptions while looking at the book you can get the emotional connection to this work. The context of the work I have seen shows it is almost like a labour political Broadcast with the way it is connoted. While looking it online on news websites you get to read what people looking at the work thinks of this and it gives it more of an understanding.