FROM OUR NORTHERN CORRESPONDENT
Latest issue of The Northern Correspondent features one of my photographs on the front cover, plus another eight pages inside the mag.
The Northern Correspondent was created by a small group of journalists and story-tellers, writers, photographers, illustrators, film-makers and broadcasters who are passionate about telling stories of the people and places of the north east. They tell those stories in whichever medium is best for each story. They’ve identified a growing appetite for longer form, more narrative journalism that is willing and able to engage readers’ interests in important subjects and themes across three, four or five thousand words.
They started the project in April 2014, raising funds to launch a magazine in the north east, via the crowdfunding website, Kickstarter; the same method Ian Paterson and myself used to help finance our Leaving Home exhibition in 2013.
The quarterly publication is now up to issue no.6, which has a diverse collection of articles gathered together under the theme ‘Home’. Editor Ian Wylie has written an interesting piece about the huge number of vacant properties in the north east; exploring the reasons and talking to those who are trying to address the issue. Many of the underlying issues have similarities to the abandoned homes situation here in the Outer Hebrides, and no doubt throughout the UK and elsewhere. There are articles about refugees, migrant workers in the UK, the trials and tribulations of building a new home and many, many more. Photographer and prefab enthusiast Elisabeth Blanchet – who interviewed me for the November 2014 issue of LM – is also featured in the same issue, looking back at her work with the gypsy community in England.
If you’d like to see (and read) more, The Northern Correspondent costs £5. It’s available via mail order and also from various outlets around the north east. See their website for more info.