Greatermancunians.blog is a collaborative photography project that profiles people across Greater Manchester who have somehow shaped the community. Sponsored by Manchester City Council and created by students at Manchester College, this blog shows us how blogging can contribute to and celebrate a community.
Who is the Blog for, and What’s It About?
Greatermancunians.blog is a student-led “landmark photography project” that seeks to acknowledge the people who have shaped the region. Musicians, sportspeople, entertainers, entrepreneurs, politicians, actors, comedians, artists, and community champions each chose a significant place in the city to be photographed.
The influential community members range from Parliament Member Angela Rayner to Sarge, a security doorman. Greatermancunians.blog celebrates the Greater Mancunian spirit and creates a space to tell their stories.
“Greater Mancunians” will be published in 2023 and culminate in a major city center exhibition.
What Makes It Special?
At its heart, Gretermancunians.blog is a photography gallery in the form of a blog as a piece of art. It’s a directory of the region’s influential people, an artist-guided vision that shows blogging doesn’t have to be in written form.
As well as being a collection of photographs and stories, it serves as a learning opportunity for students. One major goal of the project is “to give talented young students employability/work experience skills so vital when breaking into the creative industries.”
Each post tells the featured subject’s story alongside a collection of photographs from their photoshoot. They conclude with either a Q&A or reflection on the student’s experience of meeting and photographing them. Together, each post creates a beautiful picture of Greater Mancunians.
What Can We Learn?
Greater Mancunians is an excellent example of a blog that goes beyond its virtual space and contributes to its larger community. Each post uses a similar format while matching the subject’s personality, showing how to create variability in a blog and where uniqueness can come from.
It’s a captivating biographical blog that positively impacts the community, serves as a learning opportunity for aspiring artists, and is part of a larger project. This is a reminder that there are many different uses for blogs — only limited by our ideas.
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