Sutton Steams Ahead 2024: Showcasing Photography / Then, Now, Next

Our last blog introduced an exciting upcoming event from the Sutton Steams Ahead programme. Today, we are looking back at some of the wonderful projects that have been absorbing us all year!

In April 2023 it was announced that, as part of the Sutton STEAMs Ahead programme, The London Borough of Sutton was on the lookout for 4 creatives to create a photographic based artwork, under the title Projections. Participants were asked to use to use photographic techniques to address one or more of the following ideas: Sutton’s STEAM History, Science in Sutton, Sutton of the Future. The following four creatives all received grants under the programme, and we’re delighted to share some of their projects here on the blog. All works showcased here have been funded by London Borough of Sutton as part of the Mayor of London’s Cultural Impact Award and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Moses Baako

First up Moses Baako, a Black British visual storyteller and artistic director at Writerz & Scribez C.I.C. produced a visual collection entitled ‘The Topology of Sutton’ – an exploration of the intersection between the advances of civil engineering and the ever-changing landscape of the Borough using Queen Mary’s Park as his focus point. The exhibition utilised archive imagery and information alongside new black and white photography of the landscape taken by Moses to bring context and history to a well used a loved recreational space in the borough. A space once occupied by the Queen Mary’s Hospital.

Abi Partington-Moran

Abi Partington-Moran was our second commissioned artist. She created, Portraits of the South, a public art trail which used a double exposure photography technique to capture some of the people and places of Sutton. The project sought to share a new understanding of the area and the people that make it by linking portraits to recorded interviews hosted on her website . These unique images were on display along Sutton High Street for a month over the summer and the images and interviews can still be viewed online. Abi’s beautiful images will also be on display on hoardings in the high street in early 2024.

BTV Productions

BTV Productions are three local creatives that set up as a multimedia production company, to explore projects surrounding, but not exclusive to, communities, local history, local issues and exploring a sense of place.‘Talking Heads, Living History’ was a video film and public projection project that mixed interviews of residents of Sutton with the images, text and sounds that they are speaking about. The interviews were processed through the science of Artificial Intelligence software and the photographic process of double exposure. The group produced a wonderful film which can be viewed below, exploring the past and present of Sutton and asking people to imagine what the future looks like for the borough. The project generated a wealth of footage, audio and imagery which has all been donated to the archive.

Pia Jaime

Pia Jaime is a local artist whose project ‘Sutton’s Blueprint’ explored light and its power to create life. Her vision of Sutton and its citizens and institutions as a living, breathing, constantly changing organism generated a wonderful cyanotype based animation which was projected onto the rear facade of Cheam’s historic Whitehall Museum in December 2023. The full film and a small exhibition showcasing the work is on display at Whitehall during open hours until the 27th January. Original prints from her process are available to buy on site. If you make it down, please do get in touch to let us know here what you think of the piece.