In Proximities series
The human imagination is a powerful thing … it is more able to effect change than you might think
Rob Hopkins, From What Is to What If.
Research tells us that how people move around and experience their urban environment
can have strong influences on our mental health, from healthy transport options, to social spaces,
to a glimpse of vegetation from our office windows. Cities can make us sad. Cities can exacerbate mental illness.
City living is a risk factor for depression anxiety and even schizophrenia (doubles the risk).
However, cities can also make us happy. They can give us a stress-free commute that brings us in contact with trees.
They can give us daylight and the feeling of space. They can bring us security.
An important part of our mental health is in the hands of those who plan and design our cities.
Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health.
The human imagination is a powerful thing … it is more able to effect change than you might think
Rob Hopkins, From What Is to What If.
Research tells us that how people move around and experience their urban environment
can have strong influences on our mental health, from healthy transport options, to social spaces,
to a glimpse of vegetation from our office windows. Cities can make us sad. Cities can exacerbate mental illness.
City living is a risk factor for depression anxiety and even schizophrenia (doubles the risk).
However, cities can also make us happy. They can give us a stress-free commute that brings us in contact with trees.
They can give us daylight and the feeling of space. They can bring us security.
An important part of our mental health is in the hands of those who plan and design our cities.
Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health.
In Proximity's 6,3,2,4
Limited Edition: Digital C-Type photographic prints on Fuji Matt Large-scale (edition of 7 & 1 A/P) and small-scale (edition of 15 & 1 A/P).
Series statement: Our urban environments are the background setting many of our personal and communal lived experiences, but rarely become the subjects of our attention. Playing with the ambiguities of scaling that close-up photography offers, In Proximities are ‘cityscapes’ for our imaginations that allow for multiple readings. They were taken on film in an experimental process working with table-top tableaus of everyday items of office stationery such as staples, glues and pen lids arranged temporarily for the camera in the studio.
Making the work I was specifically thinking and reading about practitioners who are placing communities, mental health and wellbeing at the centre of urban planning systems by working with evidence bases that show our clear preferences for living with diversity of buildings, plant life & less traffic. A key influence making the work was the book Cities for People published by the Danish architect Jan Gehl in 2010 who argues for the creation of cityscapes on a human-scale. His studio’s core concern is to “Inspire positive change in the communities we serve by putting human needs at the centre of urban design and planning”.
More recently at the UK’s Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, Jenny Roe and Layla McCay’s counteract the toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers of overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight with their 2021 book 'Restorative Cities, Urban design for Health and Wellbeing’ further embeds how our surroundings affect us and aims to establish an evidence-based blueprint for urban design for mental health and examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community.
Shown: Works from the series have been installed in private collections and selected for:-
2014 Epsy Photographic Award Exhibition (In Proximities 3)
2022 Fraction Magazine's 14th Anniversary Issue 157 (In Proximities 4)
2022 Abridged Magazine's 'The Violent Hour' Issue (In Proximities 4)
Series statement: Our urban environments are the background setting many of our personal and communal lived experiences, but rarely become the subjects of our attention. Playing with the ambiguities of scaling that close-up photography offers, In Proximities are ‘cityscapes’ for our imaginations that allow for multiple readings. They were taken on film in an experimental process working with table-top tableaus of everyday items of office stationery such as staples, glues and pen lids arranged temporarily for the camera in the studio.
Making the work I was specifically thinking and reading about practitioners who are placing communities, mental health and wellbeing at the centre of urban planning systems by working with evidence bases that show our clear preferences for living with diversity of buildings, plant life & less traffic. A key influence making the work was the book Cities for People published by the Danish architect Jan Gehl in 2010 who argues for the creation of cityscapes on a human-scale. His studio’s core concern is to “Inspire positive change in the communities we serve by putting human needs at the centre of urban design and planning”.
More recently at the UK’s Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, Jenny Roe and Layla McCay’s counteract the toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers of overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight with their 2021 book 'Restorative Cities, Urban design for Health and Wellbeing’ further embeds how our surroundings affect us and aims to establish an evidence-based blueprint for urban design for mental health and examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community.
Shown: Works from the series have been installed in private collections and selected for:-
2014 Epsy Photographic Award Exhibition (In Proximities 3)
2022 Fraction Magazine's 14th Anniversary Issue 157 (In Proximities 4)
2022 Abridged Magazine's 'The Violent Hour' Issue (In Proximities 4)