A new public art exhibition in North Belfast has given locals the chance to see their areas through a different lens.
The 'This Is Where I Be' project, delivered by The Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts, saw participants from areas across North Belfast including Deanby, Oldpark, the Antrim Road and the New Lodge meet up with The Duncairn's Artist in Residence, Leah Davis, for a walk like no other.
Smartphones in hand, Leah guided the participants through features on their phones that allowed them to take photographer-quality pictures of their local area. They were able to walk through parts of the North of the city together, finding inspiration in all things around them.
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The photos were then compiled into a photographic exhibition, in place now at the Waterworks Park and Marrowbone Park. The exhibition depicts parts of North Belfast by people who are from North Belfast.
Debbie Young from The Duncairn said the idea from the project stemmed from wanting to get more people to step outside and feel better during the pandemic.
"It started with the walks I had with a different photographer through our programme, and I said we should be bringing this into our local area," she told Belfast Live.
"It's really just talking to people and seeing what sort of thing they'd like to do, and what skills they'd like to learn. People aged from 15 to 50 showed up to take part. What you're seeing here in these photos is the sense of everybody's home. It's something to share with passersby.
"99% of people have a mobile phone in their pocket, 99% of us don't know how to use every facet of it, which is where Leah was fantastic as she was able to work with free apps to help the participants to manipulate their stuff, and teach them about composition and what is best to focus on."
Debbie said an important aspect of the project was to try and change people's perceptions of North Belfast.
"North Belfast can have a very negative image around the city, and it's not like that at all," she added.
Justine Browne from the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Health Development Team agreed with this aim. She said: "I've been working North Belfast for 14 years, and it does get a lot of flack, so we wanted to try and change that narrative.
"The great thing of going out walking around with Leah was it showed a photo doesn't need to be staged, it's just finding something interesting or beautiful in your every day surroundings.
"Whether it's countryside or an urban landscape, there's beautiful things everywhere. This is through the eyes of the people who live in the areas."
The Duncairn's Artist in Residence, Leah Davis, said she enjoyed being part of the project and praised it for making art accessible to all.
"It's so important this is local, it's not in some high end art gallery, it's at the Waterworks and anyone can walk past and appreciate this art work. It's accessible which is great to see," she said.
"It was great as a local North Belfast resident myself and the artist in residence at the centre to meet new people and walk around streets, and have that creative eye to look at things in a whole other way. Using your mobile phone, it's things people have alongside them all the time anyway in this day and age, people don't realise how much you can do with a mobile phone.
"I'm only new to the area so it was great to walk around and speak to new people, as well as to share my skillset as an artist. We would've walked for a couple of hours at a time, it's great to walk around your local area and spot something that'd make a nice photo and having the confidence to go for it."
One of the project's participants, Lisa Fahy, said she was "blown away" by how much she was able to learn. She said: "Being able to walk around and just really appreciate your own area was great.
"You'd normally just be driving through or rushing off somewhere, but to really stop and appreciate different parts of it was great. I'm absolutely useless at taking photos normally, but I loved it; the learning and being taught how to focus on different parts of the image to take a better picture. It was incredible learning."
Emma McMeekin said she found out about the project at just the right time, and that it's opened a whole new area of learning for her.
"I was into photography when I was a teenager but just lost concentration in it. It was only recently I was thinking about restarting it, but I never did until Lisa came along and told me about the project. It all really clicked into place," she said.
"It didn't feel like a couple of hours, it was just like you were hanging out with friends. Its got me to do other things too, I went down to Sailortown for a couple of hours as I'm quite into dark history and the area would have a lot of that.
"It's opened that sort of door for me, as going down and photographing lots of lovely buildings has made me want to know more, to know the history of the buildings. Once one door opens, you're wanting to keep going and learn other things."
The 'This Is Where I Be' project is a collaboration between The Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts and the Belfast Health & Social Care Trust Health Development Team, supported by the Arts Council.
The public art exhibition is in place at Marrowbone Park and The Waterworks until Friday, September 9. It will also be available to view at The Duncairn from September 13 to October 7.
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