PHOENIX RISING

 

I’ve spent the last few years photographing on the streets after the Covid pandemic. I wondered how this time of virus – of trauma, fear and isolation – would affect young folks whose coming of age years were spent in their bedrooms. I photographed in Northern towns and met the most playful, creative young people as they re-emerged. It was so life-affirming to see their values, culture and self identities worn and styled; they are all at once cool, punk, playful, sophisticated and political. My studio was often set up in empty retail spaces where, over the Covid times, businesses up and left, leaving behind shop fittings and mannequins. It all felt very apocalyptic and shocking back in 2021, seeing these cracks in society and the promises of consumerism laid bare. 

 

It was from these experiences that I began this new work I thought of as Phoenix Rising. I saw young people everywhere I photographed who I thought of as something reborn of this time, of the fires, chaos and uncertainty of now, from a world literally on fire. 

 

The Phoenix is an immortal bird and rises from the ashes of its ancestors. Constructing a nest of flammable materials – a bed of sticks, leaves and brush – the Phoenix strikes the match and engulfs itself in flames, a violent act that leads to a rebirth, a rising. 

 

The Phoenix is a new creature, born and also reborn, young and also ancient and sacred. 

In this playful collaboration with Jude Kershaw we reenact the history of women in Leeds. The team are Jude, as ‘Woman of Leeds’, stylist and make-up artist Keli Cartwright, Saturday Town graphic designer, all around everything person Jenn Smith and myself. In the final scene the phoenix rises, a new creature. Jude wears a creation by Leeds fashion designer K Walker.

 

This work is dedicated to Keli’s baby!

 

 

Casey Orr June 2023