„Merseyside and Brexit“ is an artistic photography project about the metropolitan county Merseyside (including Liverpool, St Helens, Wigan, New Brighton) in North West England. Main elements: Portraits of people from the working class in North England and the question whether they voted to stay or to leave the EU (Brexit). The photos were taken spontaneously. The models were aware of the camera, but the photos were not staged/directed by the photographer.„Merseyside and Brexit“ plays with cliches and expectations of the observer. The question whether the people on the photographs have voted for Brexit or not will only be answered at the very end of the photography exhibition. The observers are asked to guess whether the person on the image has voted for Brexit or not. Eventually, the observers will find out if their judgement was right, and will be confronted with their expectations and maybe even prejudices.
Can you see it in his/her face who of these people voted for Brexit? Would you have guessed?
Why Merseyside: Merseyside (around the river Mersey) is a county in North West England, including Liverpool, St Helens, Wigan, Birkenhead, New Brighton, Southport, Kirkby etc. There, we find big cities, smaller cities, towns, villages and even the coast. Thus, it offers a wide range of different lifestyles. It is also a traditional “Labour”- constituency.
Publication: Photo book Merseyside and Brexit, Hatje Cantz Publishing, 2020