Preston is My Paris


Preston is My Paris Publishing is a photography-based project that creates publications, site-specific installations, live events, digital applications, education, writing, talks and workshops. It was started in 2009 by Adam Murray and Robert Parkinson as a photocopied zine with the intention of encouraging the exploration of Preston as a subject for creative practice and to focus more attention on the city. It has been described as "politically and photographically aware", "photographing and publishing a view of a disregarded, ordinary Britain" "in a playful way".
It has self-published numerous publications in zine, newspaper and book formats, which have been included in exhibitions and are held in public collections at the Tate Library, Fotomuseum Winterthur Collection, Manchester Metropolitan University Artists’ Books Special Collection, London College of Communication Special Collection and National Art Library.

History

Adam Murray and Robert Parkinson started Preston is My Paris to inspire interest in Preston, Lancashire, because they "noticed a distinct lack of creative work in the city and likewise work that featured the city as a focal point." Between 2009 and 2011 they self-published and gave away for free a mostly monthly series of photocopied zines with original contemporary documentary photographs, found imagery, objects and writing related to the city. They called it Preston is My Paris after a TV commercial for Clarks shoes. Jamie Hawkesworth was later occasionally involved in the project.
It went on to publish a series in zine and newspaper formats under the name Preston is My Paris Publishing "documenting aspects of Britain in a quirky English way. Inspired by the French novelist Georges Perec's interest in 'little pieces of everydayness'". It used cheap or vernacular print formats and lower end print production such as photocopying and newspaper to make them more accessible, given away for free or sold at low cost. It expanded into site-specific installations, live events, digital applications, education, writing, talks and workshops.
In 2010 it held a fashion shoot using only clothes from local shops and markets, models scouted on the street in Preston, and an empty unit in a run-down shopping centre for an ad-hoc photography studio and gallery. They used fashion imagery "because it's so widely accessible" and "also wanted to address the way the North is presented in fashion photography." Murray said "Fashion is about so much more than a few fashionable people in London,... It's peoples' identity and self-expression." The resulting zine, Denim, was considered by the British Journal of Photography to be "an arresting 14-page story".
Also in 2010 Murray, Parkinson and Haweksworth spent several weeks in Preston bus station, photographing the architecture and its community of users because it was scheduled for demolition. They set up a project space for a weekend in a disused shop there. The project engaged the community and the subsequent zine that they gave away for free, Preston Bus Station, became a tool in the successful campaign to save the bus station. Preston Bus Station became collectible in the art photography scene.

Reception

and Badger include You could be in London, You could be in Vegas, But you’re in Brierfield and Thank you for travelling with Northern Rail in the third volume of their photobook history. The former publication was described by The Daily Telegraph in its weekly feature highlighting a photo book. Jason Evans, writing in Photoworks Issue 16, gave the project's publications and strategy a favourable review, he said it was "a refreshing position on politically and photographically aware self-publishing". Preston is my Paris was Dazed and Confused magazine's 'Zine of the Month' in February 2010.

Publications

Solo exhibitions