News on In Our Nature

In February 2022, Manchester-based photographer Rebecca (Bec) Lupton began a project called Green City Photos, with the aim of documenting local environmental projects across the city. Through her storytelling and interactions with various groups, Bec’s photographs have encapsulated a network of climate activism on a broad scale, as she’s sought to document and facilitate a network of Manchester residents who can collectively become more than the sum of their parts.

We caught up with Bec to ask how the project got started, where it’s headed and what she’s learnt along the way…

How did your Green City Photos project get started?

There were probably a few different things that triggered me wanting to do it. I’d just finished one ten year long project and I thought it would be really nice to do something totally new, and something that was more fun and positive. The previous project had been about motherhood and when I started it I had young kids of my own who are now grown up. It was a key part of my life, but it was starting to become a bit less relevant for me.

I started thinking about it around the time that they were thinking of bringing in a congestion charge, which I thought would be a really positive thing for what it could potentially do for Manchester. And then when I saw that actually the majority of people in Manchester seemed really against it, I thought “oh no!” There seemed to be these two camps of people who were either engaging with the environment and then people who were totally disconnected. So, I thought can I use my skills as a photographer and storyteller to show that there doesn’t need to be a big disconnect, and that there isn’t much of a difference between those groups. I thought it would be really nice to show people with images and stories that small changes can be made in people’s lives to improve the environment.

The project is very people focussed, was that an intentional choice?

In all the projects I’ve done over the years, I’ve realised that the best way to connect with people is to see them as equals and have conversations with people over longer periods. It’s a slow process but it does seem to work. Projects like this tend to trickle along and they don’t really cause much of a ripple, but the more people you meet and the more people you introduce to each other, then the roots of the project spread further. And then it sort of comes full circle and I realise that there’s this whole network that exists. It’s about helping that network come together and realise that there’s this big community that together can be quite a strong body.

Who is your intended target audience?

I’ve kind of been holding back a little bit with the actual images because I’ve still not come to the conclusion with what I want to do with them afterwards, and I didn’t want to overshare them on Instagram just in case I do an exhibition or something like that. So Instagram is more like sharing a work-in-progress or an online sketchbook. The people who I wanted to reach were definitely a younger audience and an audience who might accidentally come across it. But with the nature of algorithms, I’m basically preaching to the converted at the moment. So, the people who’ve reached out tend to already be doing quite a lot and know about things that are already happening in Manchester. So that’s my next challenge, to diversify my audience and make the connections with people who aren’t engaged. At this stage of the project it’s more about discovery and research, and after a year of taking photos I’ll start to think about what I can do with these images and how I can reach those people who I want to show the work to and make this subject less scary or foreign to them.

People can sometimes be a bit dismissive about the power of individual actions when it comes to climate change, what are your thoughts on that?

Part of me originally questioned how big of a change we can actually make as individuals, so I’ve been interested in seeing if these kinds of initiatives will make a difference. And part of me is still approaching it quite tentatively because these things are difficult to measure and I’m not a scientist. But I feel like we can’t just sit around and observe what’s going on when we know that we’re doing things that are bad for the environment, and our culture is so led by consumerism. I can see that even if we weren’t making a huge difference, we really need to change our culture and the way we behave, and I don’t think anyone can argue against that. You can make the argument that the big companies and corporations need to be held to account, which is true, but they’re not the only ones to blame are they? I think each individual has to accept that they’re a part of it and that they continue to be part of it.

Another interesting thing about this project is that I’ve begun to focus on mental health and wellbeing and nutrition, which I didn’t think would end up being a huge part of it. I’ve witnessed all of these ways that people have improved their lives, and in every project that I document I meet happy people who have lovely social lives and they’re eating healthily and they’re learning. To me it shouts out that whether these are small things or tiny little bits of the puzzle, when you see all of these individuals together it becomes a huge thing that’s really important. There’s always a tinge of worry about the future and the environment, and those discussions come up. But I always come away feeling really positive and really happy, and I think this is probably the most selfish project I’ve ever done because I come home and I’m always in a great mood and I say: “I wish I did that every day”.

What are your next steps in moving the project forward?

I’ve got at least another three months left. I’m still not sure if I’ll finish it in February or if it’ll continue in a more organic way after that. I think from about Spring I’d like to start some sort of exhibition. Sometimes when I meet these people, I sort of forget that I’m a photographer, so the images become secondary and it becomes more about the people I’ve been meeting really. I think there’ll be some sort of consultation with them to see what they’d like to do and to see how they’d benefit from me continuing the project. Someone said that if we could make a map of all the projects and groups, that would be beneficial. I’d quite like to display the images in places where you wouldn’t usually expect to find them, whether that’s in shop windows or in a free newspaper or something like that. I’d like to do something beyond the network that’s already been made.

I definitely feel like I’m a facilitator in all this, I’m not an important person other than in how I can bring people together really. I think it’d be great to get people to chat to an audience about what others do in their communities and have more of a social gathering to give people ideas and inspire them, and share what they’ve learnt from their journeys. A lot of the people I’ve met have only been doing these things for the past year or two, so a lot of it is new to them and they’ve made changes in their lives which can be really inspiring. I think for most people, they have a really simple motivation that they want to do something locally, or meet people, or learn about growing food for example. And the environmental impact can be quite low down on their list of motivations. These groups then become really close, almost like families, and members develop their own specialisms and they become so proud of the spaces they’ve created, which are sort of sacred to them. I don’t think they realise that there are sometimes almost identical little spaces near them, and I’m not sure that they realise the benefit of reaching out to others.

What does climate action mean to you?

I think maybe five years ago, if you’d have asked me that, I’d have said it was protesting, and doing quite visible and pushy activism, writing letters to politicians and things like that. And I still think that is climate action and that there’s a place for it. But I think it’s important to balance that out with positivity, and show how you can make small changes in your life that don’t have a negative impact. Just looking within what you’re doing and seeing what’s an achievable change you can make. I don’t think we need to make ourselves feel terrible all the time, but it’s very easy to take the easy route sometimes. Climate action to me is all those small, subtle changes that people have made by identifying what is achievable and understanding what they can do.

If you’d like to learn more about Green City Photos or reach out to Bec, head to her Instagram page here.