A TEAM of photographers are snapping their way around Broadbottom to catalogue a year in the life of their village.

As part of the project, which is being run by the Broadbottom Community Association, sub post master Ian Boys and 14 other local residents are compiling a series of images.

The Summer Show, the annual Scarecrow Competition, Remembrance Sunday and the Nativity Play are all expected to be among the highlights captured on camera.

But, in what will be a General Election year, Ian says the Association was keen to ensure their photographs also had a political flavour.

And James Purnell MP – who also lives in the village – agreed to be among the first to have a portrait taken for the project.

“Broadbottom is a really active community,” said Mr Purnell. “And this project is a really positive way of recording a year of events.”

The idea for the project follows a successful exhibition in 2008, which catalogued village life over the past 150 years.

Most of the photographs in that exhibition were of buildings rather than people. But Ian, who runs a photography course in the village each year, says he hopes that the latest project will put the focus on people as well as places.

“Last time there weren’t enough pictures of the people who lived here,” said Ian, who started to take photographs as a young boy, when his family spent time living in Zimbabwe.

“There were pictures of the 40 pubs in the village, but from the pictures what wasn’t clear was that the pubs were there because of the people who were building the railway.

“There were several thousand people living in tents at that time – but there were no pictures of those tents.

“Now there are 15 of us who are putting together this snapshot of life in Broadbottom in 2010, which will form part of an exhibition.”

The Broadbottom Community Association photography project will continue throughout 2010.

The picture below is one of those taken by Ian Boys for the project.


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Published on January 12, 2010.