Simon Murphy - 100 Rolls Project

In Semester One we were fortunate to book award winning portrait and editorial photographer Simon Murphy as part of our guest lecture programme. Simon is based in Glasgow and has been creating a body of work titled 'Govanhill' a personal portrait project documenting the Govanhill community.

Simon was the recipient of Kodak’s Film Photo – Visionary Project Award and received 100 rolls of film as the winning prize. This generated the idea to continue to document the people of Govanhill, an area he grew up in. Each roll of film will allow 10 medium format shots to be made, so he committed himself to produce at least one portrait from every roll to form this new body of work.

Simon has been providing updates of the stages of the project on YouTube, you can follow at the bottom of this post.

“The project is about community and diversity. Govanhill is not without it’s problems but it’s also a place where people come together and share culture and experience. It’s an exciting place that I love and where I have many connections”

"My images have always been about celebrating diversity and seeing beauty in our differences. Sometimes it's important to ask yourself difficult questions and Photography has the power to trigger thoughts in people's minds that can plant the seeds for change"

You can read more about his project on The Story Portrait

“I'm keen that, as an artist, my shots cause viewers to ask themselves questions rather than having everything revealed. I want them to think ‘there's someone who I've haven't spoken to before’ or ‘that’s a culture that I don't know much about’. My hope is it makes people more open to other people.”