Merseyside Mondrain

A week before my wife and I got married I was commissioned to photograph a really fun community event on the waterfront by Open Culture, the BBC, Tate Liverpool and Culture Liverpool. The idea was to create a Mondrain style image with various community groups, with different people representing different colours. My job was to document the event and get the big photo when it all came together.

It was a classic family fun filled afternoon with a slight twist. The event was part of Sam’s hen do. You’ve got to love it when things like this randomly happen. My wife’s knitting group Purlesque formed part of the blue group and had knitted a massive blue rectangle which they used as a picnic blanket to have a tea party on with blue drinks, blue cakes, blue cake pops and so on. I can’t say I’ve ever been to a hen party but if this is how they all go down I think stag do’s are doing it wrong.

Back to the event. The community groups included women from the Chinese Pagoda, Blue Room Group of adult learners from the Bluecoat, a man dressed as a banana and another as a bear, singers, dancers, musicians, and of course samba dancers. It was so much fun working through the mass of people seeing all these different groups interacting.

The event was shown on the One Show the following week and there is a BBC video about it which is well worth watching.

Huge thanks and congrats to the women at Open Culture for producing such a great event that made for an unforgettable weekend.