NEWS: The Other Project, in collaboration with Leeds Library Archive
- Mar 15, 2021
- 2 min read
Holly has completed her first client brief in response to Leeds Library Archive’s ‘The Other Project’. The collaboration between Leeds Central Library and York St John University saw students respond creatively to issues of the ‘Leeds Other Paper’. Holly responded to issue 148, released November 1980, which focused on the the repercussions of Peter Sutcliffe’s (The Yorkshire Ripper) murders and the Resist the Curfew protests, where women came together to fight for their right to safety at night.
Below is an extract from the blog post written by Holly, which accompanies her photographic response to the brief.
The anonymous silhouette addresses the idea that the victims of Mr. Sutcliffe, who I will not give the satisfaction of being addressed by his ‘stage name’, were not only the thirteen he murdered and seven he attacked but the thousands of Yorkshire women who lived in fear every day for five years.
The ‘Reclaim the Night’ riots were of particular interest to me, and I decided to watch the Netflix Documentary ‘The Ripper’ to aid my research. The documentary highlights the sexism and failure to listen to women and while these protests were initially kickstarted in 1977 during the Ripper period, they are still ongoing more than 40 years later; leading one to ask, has anything truly changed? As a woman, I focused on shooting at night and as part of my work, I decided to go on a walk around my local area at night to photograph the streets; my ‘reclaiming of the night’. I think the most poignant moment of this project occurred during this walk, when a man with the best of intentions said, “you want to be careful out here on your own, no place for a young woman this time of night”. The irony of this exchange does make one believe nothing has really changed.
You can read 'The Other Project: Chapter Three' here.
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