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Photographer's mission for struggling seaside town

Georgia EadieBristol
BBC Archie Byron is smiling at the camera. the image is a head and shoulders shot of Archie. He has dark curly hair and a small beard on his chin. He is wearing a white T-shirt and has a bag over one shoulder. He is stood in an urban area with a block of flats in the background. BBC
Archie Byron grew up in social housing in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset

A photographer who has travelled to seaside towns across the UK has created a "love letter" to his home town to shine a light on struggling coastal areas.

Archie Byron, 23, spent six years photographing Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, creating what he described as a "love letter to the area".

He described his town "not as beautiful or love-filled" but "home to deprivation, violence and drug addiction".

"People should love their home towns, even when they're far from perfect," he said. "Coastal regions have always had a hard time being heard and I see this as my chance to have my voice heard."

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Talking about why he first started taking photographs, the former University of the West of England (UWE) student said: "Looking at statistics ignores so much of who these very real people are.

"A short glance at the numbers tells you a lot, but it doesn't tell you everything."

Archie Byron The image shows a dirty phone box with the words "I love you, yes you!" written in pen on the window.Archie Byron
Student photographer Byron said people "should love their home towns"

Byron, who had Tourette's as a child and lives with autism, said he hopes his photographs will reveal a different side to Weston-super-Mare than just its famous beach.

"The bleakness of the town is an integral part of the atmosphere of Weston-super-Mare, with long, drawn-out winters, only to be broken by swarms of tourists and shadeless summer days," he said.

"We often hear about poverty in post-industrial northern towns and this can make people from the south feel unheard in these conversations.

"I have travelled to many seaside towns in the UK and there's something so beautifully unifying about them.

"We all face a lot of the same struggles. [Seaside] towns are at the mercy of the seasons," he said.

From a faceless man in a yellow tracksuit holding bags of lemons to graffiti declaring love on a bus shelter, Byron was keen to represent people in social housing in his artwork, drawing on his own experience of continuing to live there.

Archie Byron A man in a light green tracksuit is pictured with grass behind him. Only the middle section of the man can be seen. He is holding two full net bags of lemons, one in each gripped fist.Archie Byron
Byron says his work, pictured above, is a love letter to his town

His favourite photograph is one of a couple kissing in the pub his brother runs after they had just got engaged.

"I'd never seen anybody propose in person so that was really good and I was able to take the photo," he said.

"It was nice because I was part of it."

Lee Elkins, a tutor at UWE, described Byron's work as having a "shimmer of optimism".

He said that Byron brings Weston-super-Mare to life in a way that "someone who doesn't live in the area can't, because they're just not that connected".

Archie Byron The photograph shows the shadow of a tree on a brick wall with the initials S+R sprayed in white paint on the wall. Archie Byron
Archie's university tutor described his work as having a "shimmer of optimism"

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