People of the Croft

German-born fine-art photographer and Stokes Croft resident Claudio Ahlers is set to display his most recent project at Hamilton House this month. He’s no stranger to exhibitions, but his new work is different from what has gone before: it derives from an art installation set, that saw 24 hours’ worth of camera action create an authentic insight into Bristol’s most dynamic neighbourhood.

People were encouraged to relax while Claudio took their photograph

Of his upcoming exhibition 24H Our City – The People of the Croft, Claudio says: “I’m part of the community of Stokes Croft and it’s a very interesting place in terms of who works and lives here. I wanted to capture a day in the life of the place rather than spending a day taking portraits. My vision was for a place where people could step out of what they are normally doing.”

With a set styled like a living room erected on the corner of City Road for one day only, it was interactive theatre maker Sarah Middleton’s job to bring a home-from-home atmosphere to the busy junction. “With a lot of homeless people residing in the area, a living room can be a sensitive subject, so I decided to make it more abstract by painting the set with different colours,” she explains.

Blending into Stokes Croft vibrant character

What started out as a photo booth idea quickly turned into a full-on collaboration between Claudio and Sarah, as both put their artistic talents into creating a space that would encourage the people of Stokes Croft to open up to the idea of being photographed.

“I’ve done a lot of work with Sarah so I’m quite used to the concept of inviting people into an experimental environment,” Claudio says. “By picking the colours out of a mural on the wall we were going to use, I created a set that could belong to everyone, and could be, in a way, an extension of the street and its people,” Sarah goes onto explain.

Stokes Croft is all about community

Teamwork was at the heart of this project, as Claudio involved a group of volunteers from UWE’s photography course, graphic designer Eva Gilder and photographer Marco Cedrola into the project. They were vital for bringing the project to life over the whole of its 24-hour existence.

Connections were also forged with people on the other side of the camera: “There was one homeless lady I photographed throughout the 24-hour period. By the end of it we were exchanging heartfelt hugs – it was nice to get close to her and I’ve been bumping into her in Stokes Croft on a regular basis now,” Claudio says. “I’ve had the opportunity to strike friendships with people I’d normally walk by.”

John – a regular among the homeless in Stokes Croft

With the exhibition fast approaching, Sarah is brimming with ideas on how to bring the interactive heart of the project onto the exhibition floor: “It would be good to have an audio element to break down the barriers of 2D. It’s great looking at images of people, but, for me, I want to know more about them. I want to bring their stories to life by going back to Stokes Croft and interviewing the people we photographed there.”

After sponsorship by local print company Niche Editions, Claudio is also excited to be selling his photographs at the exhibition, offering a range of prints each signed and dated, with proceeds set to go to Bristol homeless charity Caring in Bristol.

Romance in the Croft

Hamilton House isn’t the only venue you can visit to capture a glimpse of this unique project. Plans are now in place to host a second, and more interactive, exhibition at The Space PRSC, on Jamaica Street, from 11-13 May. An exclusive insight into what you can expect includes a projection of the photographs in real time across a 24-hour period, an audio station including excerpts from Sarah’s interviews and a bar, with live performances from artists and poets.

24H Our City will be shown at Hamilton House between February 1-7. For more information visit hamiltonhouse.org/event/24h-our-city. To keep updated about the second exhibition in May 2018, keep your eyes pealed at prsc.org.uk

For more on the exhibition’s creators, visit Claudio at stills-in-time.co.uk/news and Sarah at rollingstage.co.uk

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