A local artist has combined his lifelong love of photography with support for the LGBT cause . Scott Turnbull who sells his work on Etsy was inspired to pursue his creative goals during lockdown.
Scott studied A level Art, and eventually fashion at Liverpool John Moores before settling into a career in Financial services. During lockdown in 2020 he began experimenting with his Polaroid camera using different colours and exposures to create effects.
“After experimenting with light painting a little more, I decided that I wanted to do a couple of pieces for Pride to celebrate how far we’ve come from seeing the LGBTQ population as people with some kind of ‘dark secret’ and just seeing them as people. They’ve always been there, but society has forced them to hide, to live life with a mask. With each new generation those days seem to be disappearing leading to a more open & inclusive society one we can actually call civilised. Where people are themselves and not judged on their skin colour, their gender or orientation. I wanted to capture this in a single image, a jar. The fable of Pandoras Box ‘box’ being a mistranslation of the word for jar! As we know what remained in that jar was hope, and I’ve used that to show that hope still remains and is being ‘released’ through the strength is can take from each person who lives their daily life as an LBGTQ person. A hope that each tomorrow can be better than today & that the future is not a repeat of a darker past. I have also used the same allegory for the struggles of the Trans community who are securely beneath the LGBTQ umbrella as well they should be. The triptych also incorporated the familiar rainbow and the rainbow heart.”
“The punch in blue and yellow duochrome film is a piece of street art I happened across in Manchester. While I was on a Mediterranean cruise I found street art fascinating as it was so prevalent in the places I visited, Barcelona, Rome, Marseille, Florence & Milan. I’d take pictures and spend hours later in the ships bar running then through different apps to create different effects. “ Two further images in the collection showcase support for the Ukrainian people: “I chose the obvious ‘peace’ sign and a back light shadow. I used the duochrone film from Polaroid to represent the colours present in the Ukrainian flag. The idea with these were to be, primarily visually pleasing outside of the political message of peace and lighter days are coming. It is my intention to donate a portion of each sale to the Red Cross Ukraine Crisis Appeal. ” Donations will be made from sales of the LGBT themed art to the Albert Kennedy Trust and trains charity, Sparkle.
999 feels Chester is undergoing an artistic resurgence: ” It’s an extremely exciting time. When I was growing up Chester seemed more catered towards the performance arts, there was understandably a lot of focus on the Mystery Plays & The Gateway theatre, then The Storyhouse. Now with more art galleries popping up it’s like the artists are coming to claim the city, Chester & Cheshire born artists are reminding us they’re here. Naturally when someone says ‘art’ by association you think of the bigger cities, you think of London. Chester is currently making noise and that’s extremely exciting. “ He praises the recently founded Lonely Arts Club. “I went to an event where I got to mix with artists & creatives and that was such an exhilarating experience. I think it’s sort of hard wired into our collective consciousness that as a creative person you need to paint/draw, you need to have been to art school. You need to have earned the title artist. You associate the term with the ‘masters’ or those you see hanging in galleries. It feels like cheating if you take the title for yourself. But talking to people there it was clear that this movement in Chester isn’t slowing down, it’s just beginning & with it comes the freedom to call yourself what you are. It’s going to be an extremely liberating time for many creatives who maybe felt oppressed by the perceived expectations set upon them by society.”
“I want to do something creative that I enjoy and I also want to give something back. “
The Chester blog 