Young people get photographic perspective at Backwell School

A top photographer from the East End of London is talking to more than 200 students at Backwell School this week about capturing on camera their view of the city of Bristol.

Tom Hunter has been invited by Backwell School head of creative media department Mark Curtis to visit on Friday, February 10.

Mr Hunter is hoping to encourage his young audience which includes pupils from several Bristol secondary schools to help build a photographic archive of the city and its environs.

He will later talk to undergraduates from the University of the West of England at the Bower Ashton campus.

Under the umbrella of Boomsatsuma, a youth arts group begun at Backwell School, City Perspectives is a collaborative project designed to celebrate the different viewpoints of young people across the region.

Mr Curtis said: "From Hartcliffe to Henleaze, Bishopsworth to Stoke Bishop we want teenagers to record their views of their city and hope this will culminate in a touring exhibition and online collection."

Young people will be asked to capture the diversity of city life by taking photographs of bridges, boats, rivers, buildings, people, monuments, street art, night life, shops, road signs, theatres, factories, wildlife or just their own homes, he added.

The idea is supported by the Royal Photographic Society and the Creative Youth Network.

Mr Hunter is the first photographer to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery.

He graduated from the London College of Printing in 1994 with a first class BA Hons degree and took his MA at the Royal College of Art, London and in 1998 he won the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award.

During his career Mr Hunter has also has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company and The V&A.