By concentrating on a specific area, I find that I am able to pull together a level of detail that is easily missed if observing every area. My involvement with organisations such as Shelter and Crisis provide a platform of knowledge going back to the reasons behind a lack of social and affordable housing in the UK prior to 2012 when I volunteered at centres and soup kitchens in London.
Since 2012, the level of inequality has spiralled and is displaying itself visually to society in reality and by a determined exposure by some elements of the media . My fundamental rationale behind the photographic project is to display the visual effects of this from the position of those surviving with merge finances, how they cope under the circumstances and some of the causes. To explore this in the level of detail I need to establish greater clarity and a more pronounced connection to the situation. By means of research and being in contact with the lives of those experiencing serious levels of financial poverty, I aim to gain a level of understanding that I can display through my photography.
The prominent observation that keeps displaying itself is the ease in which individuals and families can fall from just surviving to struggling. Poverty in 2019 is not necessarily about appearance in the way that could be defined in by historical representations.
Gerard Hilderly Level 3 OCA 