Meridian Raw CIC
Meridian Raw CIC is an Exeter-based social enterprise that uses photography as an empowerment tool for marginalised communities and socially excluded individuals. We spoke to founder and director Clive Chilvers…
What do you do?
Meridian Raw CIC aims to bring about social change through creative participatory photography programmes and community projects. To achieve this, we place the camera in the hands of the user and provide them with the opportunity to create photo-stories, and themes for photography projects that are personal, self-reflective or that highlight issues that affect them directly or that can affect their community. The majority of our projects are Exeter-based, but we have facilitated programmes in Barnstaple, Ilfracombe and Bristol.
How did you get started?
I trained as a participatory photography facilitator in 2010 with the London-based charity Photovoice. I went on to develop and facilitate some self-funded projects with Shilhay Community, working with a small group of homeless men in Exeter, where I gave them disposable film cameras and they created their own photographic theme and project. Meridian Raw CIC was launched in August 2013, and our first project was in collaboration with Devon Grapevine and was funded by The People’s Health Trust. It was a two-and-a-half-year project called Our Lives, Our Community, Our Voice, and helped us to develop our 14-week participatory photography programme, working with The Bridge Collective, Mind in Exeter and East Devon and HIKMAT. Since our inception, we’ve worked with more than 300 participants, facilitated more than 180 participatory photography workshops and held eight exhibitions of participants’ work. We like to think that these projects and programmes have cemented our reputation within the local community for delivering interactive and stimulating activities, and the evaluation and participant feedback has helped to shape our programmes into their current format.
Who do you work with and why?
All of our developed projects are aimed at people who have experienced or are experiencing mental health problems, people who are socially isolated and those in the community who are disadvantaged, vulnerable or suffering from some other social problems. However, we also open all of our programmes to local residents and aim to bring together all members of the local community. One of our main aims is to provide a voice for people who don’t always have the opportunity to communicate their thoughts, feelings and viewpoints. We also want to provide a safe and non-judgmental platform whereby participants have the time and space to explore imagery, take pictures and communicate with others, and develop an environment where they’re able to share some of their life stories, while taking part in a creative activity.
All of us at Meridian Raw are looking to see where we can take the organisation, who else we can work with and what projects we can develop. We regularly receive correspondence from key-workers and organisations telling us about clients who they know would benefit from taking part in interactive, stimulating and creative activities. Knowing there are more people who would benefit from our programme is a real driver for creating new initiatives and continuing our work.
Dawn Over Pulpit Rock © Matt Lewis/Meridian Raw CIC 2019. Part of the Photography for Change project.
What would make your life easier?
For us, currently, it’s about creating connections and developing opportunities to take our photography programmes into different areas and settings. For example, developing our work with Langdon Hospital, which is home to Devon Partnership NHS Trust's forensic mental health service, which supports people who, as a result of their mental health issues, have had contact with the legal system and need a safe and secure environment that enables them to receive a wide range of treatments, therapies and care to help them recover. Over the last four years, we’ve developed a good relationship with Langdon Hospital and patients have taken part in our programmes, and we’ve facilitated programmes and photo-walks at Langdon and in Dawlish.
Also, throughout our programmes we would like everyone to have access to a digital camera, or they use their mobile phone. For those who don’t have access to a digital camera then we supply one. However, the number of working cameras we have is dwindling, so donations of digital or film cameras are always useful.
Talk us through a favourite project.
Our 14-week participatory programme enables participants to create their own photo-story or photographic theme, build a portfolio of images, and develop relationships and friendships. All those taking part in the programme will engage in inspiring photo-dialogue exercises, which are devised to bring about discussion, teamwork, individual viewpoints and the space and time to develop their own photographic projects. In addition, participants will learn and develop basic camera skills, go on photography trips and community tours, and work in a safe environment within small groups.
Within our programmes we set homework tasks, which are creative photographic exercises, such as Gratitude Photography, whereby the participant has to take a picture every day of something that they are grateful for. Also, Choose a Photographer, where each participant is given a few weeks to study a photographer and take some pictures in their style. All of these homework tasks are presented and shared with the rest of the group on a big screen.
Doppelganger © Mac/Meridian Raw CIC 2019. Part of the Photography for Change project.
What does the next year look like for you?
Very exciting! We’ve just received funding from the National Lottery Community Fund’s Reaching Communities Award for a three-year project called Chasing the Light/Walking with Cameras, which will create six 14-week participatory photography programmes and over 60 photo-walks, all spread over three years. Each participant will also have the opportunity of creating and curating their own personalised photography book, which will include up to 50 images of what they have produced over the duration of the programme. We have used photo-books before in other projects as they act as physical Positive Memory item that can be shared with family and friends and can be used to bring about conversations about how the participant is feeling and what they’ve achieved.
We’ve also received separate funding, again from the National Lottery Community Fund, for a film photography project called Developing Lives, which will create three eight-week programmes that will immerse participants in film photography and darkroom printing techniques, and will enable us to focus on photography as an art practice while still embedding it within community development.
What’s been the best moment for you or your group in the last year?
For me personally, it’s seeing Meridian Raw develop and grow and become known and trusted for what we do in the community. Through a Meridian Raw lens, it’s seeing participants develop trusting relationships with other participants and create some exceptional and personal photographs along the way. Also, at the end of our most recent project, Photography for Change, a small group of participants developed their own photography collective in Exeter, which meets regularly at St Thomas Library.
In what ways are you helping to put Exeter on the cultural map, nationally or internationally?
We haven’t made it internationally as yet, apart from via social media, which definitely helps us disseminate our work in the South West, and highlights some of the participants’ work to a wider audience. The participatory photography arena is pretty small and quite niche, so practitioners and other organisations tend to support one another and their projects.
Regarding our work in Exeter, we bring people together from various communities and the surrounding areas, and provide them with opportunities to explore the city through photo-walks, photographic tasks and community trips. We have worked with Exeter Council’s Red Coat Tours, lecturers from the University of Exeter – who provided us with a Walking the Exeter Dead Tour – and with Telling our Stories, Finding our Roots, who provided us with a photo-walk and history tour of Exeter.
In addition, we have also organised and created eight photographic exhibitions of participants’ work, which have taken place at various city venues: The Glorious Art House, the Picturehouse, Exeter Phoenix, Barnfield Theatre and most recently, at the AWEsome Art Space on Paris Street, which concluded our Photography for Change Project.
What if..?
…we had our own space to facilitate our photography programmes and develop a community darkroom? This would be great, although there is something good about taking our programmes around the city to the various community centre spaces. But developing a space with an affordable community darkroom would not only help photographers – both amateur and professional – but it would also help other community groups and all the schools in the area.
How do we find out more?
Clive Chilvers: clive@meridanraw.com / 07968 080969
Website: www.meridianraw.com
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