Experiences of Living in Post Brexit Britain

 

Experiences of Brexit

a socially engaged photographic project with Romanian communities

Experiences of Brexit is a PhD investigation through socially engaged photographic practice with Romanian communities. Stemmed from 10 months of working together, this co-created visual narrative is a collection of several voices which came together and bloomed into what we consider has shaped a micro counter social order to the social order propelled by Brexit.

 
 

  • Radu Chirila is an architectural assistant and has been living in the UK since 2012.

    Laura Mateescu is a photographer and PhD researcher. She has been living in the UK since 2011.

    Miruna Constantin is a tax adviser and has been living in the UK since 2018.

    Inno Brezeanu is an IT consultant. He has been living in the UK since 1996.

    Oana Slavoaca is a tech engineer and has been living in the UK since 2020

  • Working collaboratively in and through socially engaged photographic practice aims to render voice and visibility to our real-life narratives and generate new insights into the complexity of our lived experiences informed by Brexit. Photography is a visual “record-keeper”; one that is rooted within the hidden dimensions of our social conditions, perspectives, and experiences.

  • The images, which embed our lived experiences and reflections at the heart of the enquiry, are charged, challenged and ultimately, developed as a multi-voice collaborative narrative. Conflicting aspects of selfhood interact, negotiate, and engage with the politics of representation through socially engaged photographic practice as method and framework.

    As photographers and storytellers of our lived experiences we negotiated our voice and visibility within the landscape of Brexit power dynamics. The images document, counter, and relate to the cultural and socio-political climate of Brexit, where research, practice, and lived experience are inter-linked.

  • The collaboration shaped the content of a co-authored photography book that brings together five visual narratives exploring the themes of clashes of cultures, snaps of home(s), placing the local within the general, and visual mockeries of a complex situation.

    We dreamed this book as an “open book “, a book for everyone. It is an act of claiming space so that barriers in acceptance, in language and in culture can be challenged; through which dialogue can be stimulated, so that we get to know each other in real and in unmediated ways.

 
Bran: This photo is taken on an early winter morning on my way to work. It is quite rare to see snow in England and I noticed the high white contrast (almost dual tone sepia/white). The main theme is the “frozen” passing thought. At first glance the
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The Book

Experiences of Brexit is a PhD investigation through socially engaged photographic practice with Romanian communities. This co-created visual narrative is a collection of several voices which came together and bloomed into what we consider has shaped a micro counter social order to the social order propelled by Brexit.

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Call to participation:

 

Collaborative Photography Workshops for Romanian Nationals Living in the UK

Free online photography workshops exploring how to produce photographs, discussing and visually responding to themes related to experiences of living in post Brexit Britain.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The workshops will be run by me, Laura Mateescu, as part of my photography Ph.D. research at the University of Huddersfield. As a Romanian national myself, I am interested in working and collaborating with other Romanian nationals through photography, investigating the Brexit impact but also how Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic might be linked in your daily lives. We will be using photography to engage with and communicate our stories and experiences of living in post Brexit Britain.

The workshops will run over 7 sessions on Saturday mornings or afternoons, with individual and additional support provided. You will have an opportunity to take part in an exhibition and a celebratory event.

DATES: 27 February - 10 April

TIME: (TBC) to be decided democratically, as a group

WHERE: Online via Teams in Romanian and English

1st Workshop: Saturday, 27FEB @ 11:00 GMT (via Teams)


EXHIBITION: A physical and digital exhibition together with a celebratory online event will take place after the end of the workshops. Each participant will receive a printed product (photo book, zine) to share with friends and family.

BENEFITS:

1. Engage and collaborate with other Romanian nationals living in the UK through creative and fun photography activities.

2. Produce photographs and visually communicate personal stories that will be displayed as part of the exhibition and other creative outputs we might generate (photobook, zine, website).

3. Share your experience as part of a wider conversation related to Brexit, nationalism, identity and belonging.

4. Have your images shown as part of a physical and virtual exhibition and receive a printed book/ zine with your work (or any other type of creative product we might collaboratively create)


REQUIREMENTS:  

·        To be a Romanian national living in the UK

·         To be over 18

·         To be able to attend all 7 sessions

·         To have an interest in photography

·         To have access to a photography camera or a photography enabled device (phone, iPad, tablet, etc.)

·         To have access to an internet-enabled device

·         To not be a student

Together we will be learning photography using whatever devices are available to you, regardless of the level of photography knowledge or access to photographic equipment.

To express your interest, please email Laura.Mateescu@hud.ac.uk, including your name, your location, your age (must be over 18).

·         Application Deadline: 25th of February

Please get in touch if you would like further information or if you would like to talk about your potential involvement in the project.

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Experiences of Living in Post Brexit Britain

My PhD research is investigating the perceptions and experiences of Romanian communities living in the UK post-Brexit, in and through socially engaged photographic practice.

This work in progress stems from personal experiences and aims to uncover the unmediated, real life narratives of Romanian communities living in the UK in the current socio-economic and political climate. As a Romanian myself, working with Romanian communities in and through socially engaged photographic practice will imply collaboration, co-production, co-authorship, and co-curation, which will help inform the context and experiences of Romanian communities and the role of the socially engaged photography practitioner in this context.

This way of working shifts the focus from the voice of “one” to the voice of “the many” and aims to also address how using photography as a visual language for self-identification can facilitate the means through which members of Romanian communities living in the UK post Brexit can visually take ownership of renegotiating the representations informed by propaganda speech and the stereotypes linked to immigration, oppression and othering.

LET THE COLLAB BEGIN! :)

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Between Two Homes