Welcome to Croxton Town

Southsea began as a fashionable seaside town named Croxton Town after Thomas Croxton owned the land around the 1800s, and it eventually adopted the name of Southsea in 1857 after Southsea Castle. Southsea has always been the place to be in Portsmouth, whether you want to go out for a drink, watch your favourite band, visit the beach or just hang around with friends - it's the life and soul of Portsmouth.

Growing up, I lived 10 miles away, and although I'm considered an outsider, the place has always had this gravitational pull over me. What is it about this place that makes me want to return? This question initially intrigued me to create Welcome to Croxton Town. Since 2021, I've set out to attempt to capture the atmosphere and vibe of the town with a 1980's point. I shot a 35mm camera (Olympus XA2) with multiple roles of the same film stock (Kodak Colorplus 200). The idea was to capture various photographs to create a single portrait of this beautiful area.

I choose to photograph the entire project using the same film stock to create a uniform set of photographs. It was one of the cheapest films on the market, this is what attracted me at first, but after photographing a few test rolls, I fell in love with the sharp grain and the way it captures the pastel colours found throughout Southsea from the blue sea, green fields and yellow-painted houses.

Most days, I would wander around for hours, regardless of the weather, not knowing what I was looking for, getting lost in the maze of colourful back streets, neon signs and graffiti-covered tunnels until I got an instant emotional attachment to someplace. 

My goal is to have a decent body of work, which I estimate to be around 1000 photographs of the area, totalling 41 rolls of 35mm film. Once I've completed my body of work, a selection of these photographs will be printed and exhibited locally in Portsmouth and surrounding areas while creating my first self-published book. I designed this book for the 18,000 residents and the 9.4 million tourists who visit each year; this book freezes a moment in time in an uplifting, ever-changing city full of art and culture. The book contains over 80 colour photographs of local landmarks, back streets, landscapes and hidden areas that some locals didn't know existed.

For the last twelve years, I professionally photographed weddings, lovely as most of those weddings were and how I got to travel the world; I no longer felt like an artist. I felt like no matter how perfect or artistic the photograph, it was still considered a wedding photograph by a wedding photographer. I've since closed up shop, and this body of work is about - a start of a new journey, helping me return to the impulse of why I started taking photographs in the first place all those years ago.

If you donate £10 you will receive the following:

• Virtual High Five
• Your name will be included on a dedicated thank you page in the book

If you donate £15 you will receive the following:

• Virtual High Five
• Your name will be included on a dedicated Thank You page in the book
• Signed 5 x 7.5 print from the book Welcome to Croxton Town

If you donate £25 you will receive the following:

• Virtual High Five
• Your name will be included on a dedicated Thank You page in the book
• Signed 5 x 7.5 print from the book Welcome to Croxton Town
• Downloadable PDF version of the book Welcome to Croxton Town

If you donate £50 you will receive the following:

• Virtual High Five
• Your name will be included on a dedicated Thank You page in the book
• Signed 5 x 7.5 print from the book Welcome to Croxton Town
• Downloadable PDF version of the book Welcome to Croxton Town
• Signed first edition of Welcome to Croxton Town (100 copies only)

Estimated delivery is May 2022