| Look Out: Look Here is a community-based photographic activity and exhibition that began in May, 2003 as an outlet for the Dupont/Bloor West community to express its concerns over the local murder of ten-year-old Holly Jones. In the aftermath, residents felt both ashamed and fearful of their community. The press painted the neighbourhood as a dangerous place, with hundred of pedophiles living in the vicinity. Parents kept their children inside, people talked about moving away. The project was developed as a way to get people out to walk and rediscover the vitality and goodwill in their neighborhood.
250 disposable cameras were distributed to Holly’s classmates, friends and neighbours, together with a general invitation to the community to participate as well. The project used photography as a way of looking at the Dupont/Bloor West neighbourhood and as a way of making a collection of things that caught and focused people’s attention. Look Out: Look Here is a gesture of support for the Jones family. It is a way to see the local in the sharp focus that photography provides and it offers encouragement for residents to explore and reclaim the neighbourhood. The exhibition gives the opportunity to choose a favourite image from the 1400 photographs that were made in the neighbourhood and to actively place it within the exhibition. |