Village Life – A jointly managed project between BAC and Stogursey Arts Photographic Society

The village of Stogursey is two miles from Hinkley Point and initially, in response to a growing interest
in photography, the Stogursey Arts Photographic Society (SAPS) was formed in 2022 to meet the needs
of this growing number of enthusiasts. As a part of community regeneration, in a changing village
environment, the Stogursey Arts Trust (SAT) had been leading on various initiatives to engage locals in
projects using the Arts as a focus and SAPS became a key part of this initiative.

The group started to meet once a month, to share their interest and collectively help each other, tuning
up their skills towards making better photos. The motivation started through swapping technical tips
and aiming to help the group get better at taking photos. It didn’t matter if you used a traditional film
camera, a digital camera, an ipad or a camera phone, the aim was, and still is, to encourage members of
this group to take good photos, by capturing engaging subject matter and composing great pictures.

Since the first meeting the group covered photographic standards like light and shadow, colour,
movement, still life, people, action, portraits, animals, landscape, buildings and interiors. As the
confidence of members grew, alongside the membership, an ongoing project was identified, which could
be worked on collectively. The subject matter was close to everyone and in terms of the Arts Trust it
had evolved and met the criteria of a community focus, which could be supported through start-up
funding.

’Village Life’ started as a collection of photos documenting the everyday activities, the subtle
changes, the special events and the amazing environment that surrounds the village, between the
Quantocks and the Bristol Chanel. ‘The archive’, as it is now referred to, is available ‘on line’ at
https://www.stogurseyphotos.org.uk

In addition, with support of the Fairfield Trust, the SAPS have developed an exhibition, which is
accessible to all, ‘off line’, in the form of selected prints from the archive and these are now part of a
permanent display, which is regularly updated, in the Victory Hall, in Stogursey.

The project has formed a talking point for the photographers, villagers and visitors and is to be further
extended by developing a QR code system. Here, visitors will be able to access photographs from
specific sites around the village, to see how these sites come alive at various points in the year.

Buildings without people have history, but they do not convey a contemporary sense of a community.
By using the QR signs at specific communal locations, ‘Village Life’ can be accessed and bring alive how
the buildings are now used and form central hubs in the community.

In order to share the concept, reaching a wider audience and to celebrate the success of this project
developed over the past four years, the SAPS have been working with the team at the Bridgwater Arts
Centre to create an exhibition of the work.

During the exhibition, the SAPS hope to run a series of discussion forums, to help other villages in
West and East Somerset, see how the project could potentially work in bringing their community
together, by using the project to document the important nature of their own village life. In conjunction
with ‘community leaders’, it is envisaged that the best of what we have learnt, can be adopted and run
in other village communities. This could generate further Village Life photographic archives and this
could eventually contribute to a much wider living archive of Village Life across Somerset today.

The ’Village Life’ exhibition runs from the 5th January to the 30th January with the support from a joint grant
to BAC and SAPS from the Fairfield Trust. All are welcome.

Mike Bradshaw
for the Stogursey Arts Photographic Society