My Town, Their Town

The latest project I've been fiddling with is based around a place that is steeped with nostalgia for me. Somerset is the birthplace of many of my ancestors, including my mum, grandparents, great grandparents and great-great grandparents. Specifically for me, the town of Frome is full of memories from spending most of the summer holidays with my grandparents whilst my parents worked.

The Photo North competition had a simple brief for their competition Our Streets, "Show us your streets, your hometown, your place of belonging." I chose to put a little twist on this and decided to use two photographic mediums, 35m film and digital photo's processed using Instagram, to show the two vastly different versions of Frome in my life - the Frome of my childhood (where the only excitement came from the weekly cattle markets and my Yorkshire accent stood out like a sore thumb - literally everyone else in town had the west country accent) and the Frome of current day - a thriving metropolis of artisan markets and eclectic shops that draw people from all over the globe (many Hollywood celebs have been spotted at the now famous monthly artisan market).

So during August I made my annual trip down and got out and about with a Cannon T50 and my iPhone. Ducking down alleyways to photograph the old railway bridge where I used to play as a kid brought back so many happy memories, especially as the loss of my grandad was fairly recent, it took me back to the happy times of trying to feed cows Jelly Tots and cutting through my Great Uncles garden on the way to town and back.

Frome has changed so much in the last few decades, but if you look hard enough, you can still see the town it used to be.

However, that being said, it's amazing just how the town has reinvented itself. No longer the sleepy forgotten hideaway, its a bustling mix of amazing shops and people now.

Either way, I love the town, it's a truly magical place and I urge everyone to visit it as often as you can. Explore every nook and cranny and be amazed by the history that is interwoven with the eccentricity.