Waiting, Glasgow (2010 - 2011)

Project Background

Funding Partner: Awards for All Scotland- The National Lottery, The Gannochy Trust, The Robertson Trust
Project Manager: Jane Martin
Facilitators: Brian Sweeney, Christina Kernohan, Becky Duncan

In the year 2009-10 more than 10, 000 young people (aged 18 – 24) in Scotland were accepted as homeless.

Over the winter we’ve been working with Fairbridge Glasgow (for the second time) and eleven young people affected by homelessness. After a residential teambuilding trip of night photography, glowsticks and white water rafting, they met twice a week for six weeks with facilitators Brian Sweeney, Christina Kernohan, and Fairbridge Staff, travelling over Glasgow to shoot an impressive body of work.

In 2003 the Scottish Parliament passed groundbreaking legislation stating that everyone who is homeless would have the right to a home by 2012. This programme to tackle homelessness has received international acclaim and Scotland has been recognised as having the best homelessness legislation in western Europe.

Many young people are living in unsuitable temporary accommodation, waiting for a permanent place to live. When they are offered a place it is often in a location or in a condition that others won’t accept. Support available to furnish it can take a long time to come through, and young people can be forced into paying rent for places they can’t yet live in. For some young people this means double rent and years paying off the arrears.

In 2012 when the legislation comes into place all homeless young people will have the right to a home – but for this right to become reality there must be homes for them to live in.

Project photo gallery

Meet the Photographers

Go here to read more about the photographers

Press

Big Issue Scotland (March 2011)
Scottish TV - The Hour(March 2011)
Daily Record (March 2011)

Watch this page for links and more press details as the campaign unfolds!

Project Outputs

Waiting is touring Scotland throughout spring and summer 2011, visiting locations in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Stirling.

Waiting’s touring exhibition continues to go around Scotland, making it the most exhibited and visited PhotoVoice project of recent years – over ½ million people are estimated to have seen the images in over 20 sites. Big thanks to all the team, our partner Fairbridge, all the venues and well done to the young participants!

Download the full exhibition tour schedule as a pdf here.

“I thought the exhibition was wonderful. The words attached to the photographs were very poignant… The staff all thought it looked so good. Emphasise the ‘so’. A borrower said it was like ‘looking out of a big window’. It was such a change from notices that we usually put on our walls-something to make people think in a different way. Thank you for letting us have ‘Waiting’.”
Janette, Maryhill Library & Learning Centre

In December the young people impressed final year students of Photography and Visual Communications at Glasgow School of Art with a presentation of their work (and a tour of the Art School) and the young people are now about to start delivering peer education workshops with young people at the Quarriers Stopover Centre in Glasgow.

We have also launched a free teaching resource available online: to download click here.

Further project info

Interested in buying a print? All photographs from the Waiting project are available to buy as high quality digital C-Type prints at the following prices:

8” x 10” print: £30
12” x 16” print: £60
P&P: £2.50

To order, email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with details of the print you wish to buy (see the slideshow above), or call PhotoVoice on 020 7033 3878.
All prints are accompanied with a caption, information about the project, and a PhotoVoice certificate of authenticity. 50% of all proceeds from print sales are paid to the photographer whenever possible.

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