The year I photographed Eurovision at home. That’s it. That’s the year. Eurovision.
In 2023, I photographed live music featuring previous Eurovision winners and entrants. I covered a live dual city rave between Liverpool and Kyiv, inflatable Songbird’s, an audio walking tour by Ukrainian artists, queer drag performances, a 3D light projection on the Museum of Liverpool, the arrival of 2022’s winning Eurovision entrants Tvorchi at Liverpool John Lennon Airport, a giant octopus roaming the city and a couple of nights of sparkly events at the museums. In amongst all this I worked on a portrait series. What a wild two weeks. On a personal note, I was able to do a few of these events while wearing a sparkly t-shirt dress. As a non-binary person I appreciated the support of my clients and the city as a whole. Absolutely no issues walking the city and working in a dress as a queer non-binary photographer. This is how it should be.
I got back to working on a long term project about community and connection in my local swimming community. The group swims every day in the River Mersey against the backdrop of oil tankers and giant container ship cranes. It’s not stereotypically picturesque, but the community makes it. I entered some of these photos in the Open Eye Gallery’s “Liverpool City Region Photo Awards” and won Juror’s Choice. Another of the photos was published in Issue 4 of Werkhaus Zine by WorkHorse Collective. I’m hugely proud of that.
From dawn on the Liverpool waterfront to dusk at the Lady Lever Art Gallery and then night on New Brighton beach where I caught a glimpse of the aurora, I got around with cameras. I sank in mud that was up the top of my boots while photographing Grace Jones in torrential rain, and I used a macro setup to see the beauty of bees. For the summer equinox I attended a Druid ceremony in Anglesey that connected me with nature in the middle of the year. For the winter equinox I jumped about in the dark, cold, stormy waves of the River Mersey and then sat by a roaring fire with friends.
As a neurodivergent queer non-binary idenitfying disability advocate I was proud to work on disablity projects for National Museums Liverpool, queer nights for Homotopia and to have the trust of people while photographing the vigil of Brianna Ghey at St George’s Hall. I attended both Liverpool and Wirral Pride events to document it as best as I could, and I still have to organise that work and publish it. Look for it in 2024.
A solid year of photography, but not just me behind the camera. I was also in front of it being photographed by the lovely people from Shaw & Shaw for an article on overcoming anxiety through wild swimming on the Guardian. It’s unfortunately been taken down as it was a paid piece by the RNLI and the deal has ended, but you can still read it on Archive.org. I wrote about the experience on my site Hello Computer.
What a year. I pushed myself in so many ways, met so many amazing people and saw countless incredible things. I hope 2024 is more of the same.
