1922: Made With Love In North Manchester
Updates from our very first event at Factory International, more about who and what to expect in issue 1, and most importantly - why we’re actually called 1922…
We had our very first event a week ago at Factory International, Aviva Studios. Our aim was to launch 1922 to the city, let Manchester know what we’re about and why we need the community’s help to finally get issue 1 into circulation. The day was hosted by the one and only Paddy Nicholls – Moston’s Neighbourhood Organiser for Factory International – one of the first people to truly believe in the magazine and what we’re trying to do and one of the key people who made yesterday’s event happen at all.
We had two amazing performances with breathtaking vocals from Moston based vocalist Porteya Isabella, and a high energy set from the next big rap star to come from North Manchester – the one and only Millz. We had DJ Lay J finish the day off with an amazing DJ set reminding us of the days house parties used to be fun (there’s been a severe Manchester house party drought over the last few years seeing as though no one actually has a house anymore).
There was an interview with yours truly about why I started the magazine, and I was also joined by our 2 panel guests Madi & Erica who chatted to us about creativity, identity and representation.
Now the last time I did any public speaking I was 8 years old, dressed as a mermaid and I did my first stand up comedy stint (every joke landed by the way). I’ve always been a much better writer than I am a talker as my ADHD brain so often betrays me - so naturally when the day was over I thought about all the things I should have said or forgot to mention - so hopefully today’s post will give a bit more clarity about what to expect in the first issue of 1922!
Who am I?
I’m Ella. Born in Crumpsall hospital like most of us this side of Manchester – I’ve lived in Moston, then Blackley and now finally Harpurhey.
I’m a photographer and the Creative Director behind 1922.
I actually went back to college in lockdown at the age of 25 because I never finished my A-levels, did a level 3 in Art & Design at Hopwood Hall, graduated last year from Salford with a BA in Fashion Image Making & Styling and now I’m back doing my Masters in Socially Engaged Photography. (I’m also the one with the neon pink head).
Who & what will be in the magazine?
192 pages cover to cover, issue 1 has Art, Fashion, Photography, Poetry and more from creatives in both North Manchester and beyond. We celebrate overlooked talent and the community heroes that keep our city going. Here’s a comprehensive list of our very first issue. Make sure to click the links to find out more about these amazing people.
1. The Last Of The Mancunians/ Collyhurst Summer 23’ - Harry Flaherty
Opening the first issue with 2 beautiful photo sets from the amazingly talented Harry Flaherty. ‘The Last of The Mancunians’ is an ongoing long term project documenting the post COVID era in Manchester, focusing on both the rapid changes and growth of the city as well as its beautiful heritage and people. It doesn’t matter what side of Mancheser you’re from these beautiful black and white photos feel like home. Harry also captures a piece of North Manchester’s history in his ‘Collyhurst Summer 23’ series, with the infamous Eastford Square shops before they were finally demolished after being abandoned for more than a decade.
2. MILLZ – Issue 1’s Cover Star
Our very first cover star and one to watch! Managed by Studio 88 expect witty word play, real life rap and high energy always. Hailing from White Moss Millz is hoping to follow in the footsteps of North Manchester greats like Aitch & Bugzy and we have no doubt he’ll succeed. He has bags of talent and confidence without the cockiness. Keep an eye out for big things from this one and new music coming soon.
3. Crinkss
An aspiring fashion designer from Blackley, Crystal was tired of the lack of diversity, functionality and most importantly POCKETS in womenswear. Her jeans, jorts and bag designs offer deep pockets, extra pockets and there’s always a secret pocket.
4. Elegance Is An Attitude: V.A.LE. Official FW23 Couture
If I told you there was an amazing couture designer from Blackley would you believe me? Viet Anh Le is the Creative Director behind his namesake couture brand V.A.LE Official. Specialising in Haute Couture, womenswear, beading and embroidery - Le also has a passion for sketching and fashion illustration. His projects often hold an underlying message which he translates into fashion pieces and modern contemporary.
5. Manchester Stand With Palestine – Elle Street Photographer
Elle is a street photographer dedicated to capturing the raw and authentic stories of people and communities. She travels across the UK to shed light on diverse cultures, social issues and human experiences with the aim to provoke thought inspire empathy and ignite change. Since learning about the history of the Palestine occupation, she has been using the power of photography to capture the passion of the Palestine protests across the UK.
6. An Ode To Poor Angry Kids
Ella Fradgley is a Liverpool-born writer, artist, illustrator, and Director of Where are the Girlbands. Her incredibly hard-hitting and moving poem ‘An Ode To Poor Angry Kids’ features in issue 1 and touches on her difficult journey through childhood trauma and a complex home life growing up poor, bearing the responsibility of looking after her sick parents - and quite understandably being angry.
7. Clayton Northside ABC
Photographer Elliott Howard collaborated with Clayton’s Northside ABC - challenging negative stereotypes of the area and its people. These stunning images really capture the authenticity and community spirit and resilience of the gym and area. He’s also recently released his own new magazine Dial In - be sure to check it out.
8. Erica Pham Art
We catch up with North Manchester multi-disciplinary artist Erica Pham in her Chinatown studio. We talked, fashion, creativity and what inspires her work. A beautfiful editorial shoot with Erica herself exploring her paintings through styling.
9. Come As You Are
A FIMS x Selfridges live brief in collaboration with Sick! Festival, these images were produced from a photography workshop inviting users of Sick’s mental health arts programme (SMASH) to ‘come as they are’ in two outfits that represent their identity, complete a worksheet exploring the Selfridge’s ethos ‘Everyone is Welcome’- and whether we feel it – and identity and sustainability. Photos by me.
10. Who The Fuck is Howard?
My piece on the infamous graffiti artist Howard and the more pressing issues that we should be drawing attention to across our city.
11. UK News To Me
Valena Yao speaks about her experience as an International Art student finding her creative freedom in Manchester through her handmade zine ‘UK News To Me’.
12. Losers by eye.scream.sand.wiitch
@eye.scream.sand.wiitch began creating illustrations in lockdown based around her own nostalgic memories of growing up in a council flat in the 90s. She also reflects on the housing crisis of today which she’s still experiencing herself now, despite having a better paid job at Manchester University.
13. ‘Motherly’ – by Lalida Glover
Bolton poet and artist Lalida Glover’s ‘Motherly’ celebrates the fierce, bold women who raised us. Lalida says a lot of her work centres around rage – “but if you aren’t angry are you even paying attention?”
14. Porteya Isabella
An interview with Moston based vocalist Porteya Isabella. We chat about who and what inspires her in both music and fashion as well as her hopes for the creative scene in North Manchester.
15. Keep It Bright/ Cube Casting
An editorial showcasing clothing and accessories from Zara Street’s Manchester based self love brand Keep it Bright in collaboration with models from Cube Casting – a genuinely inclusive casting agency started by FIMs graduate Rubee Graham.
16. Positive Influence
For our first ‘Positive Influence’ feature we speak to @meganb_frances about her fitness and self love journey. An alternative to the constant barrage of of edited, posed and misleading body transformation photos across social media, Megan reminds us to love our bodies in every angle.
17. M9
Jak on 35mm film for ‘M9’, shot in some of our favourite North Manchester spots – bet you didn’t know we had a waterfall…
18. Pre*Extinct
Issue 1 features images from FAFO’s zine ‘Pre*Extinct’ documents Chorlton precinct and its people before the precinct is due to be razed by Manchester City Council.
19. Cost of Living Carnival
Artist Cami O’Hagan combines found imagery with her own photographs to create her satirical photo series ‘Cost of Living Carnival’. Cami creates her artwork through a queer lens, reflecting her own struggles and experiences as well as the LGBTQIA+ communities at large.
20. Scouse Prinny
Styling and images by Eve Hogan paying homage to the ‘Scouse Prinny’ who will always be part of her even as her own personal style evolves.
21. Manchester Movements
Ones for the community - Manchester movements you need to be part of. In our first Manchester Movements feature we spotlight Made Running, Collyhurst & Moston ABC, Mandem Meet Up,FC United and the amazing work of Javeno Mclean at J7 Health Centre (we need so many more Javeno’s in the world!)
21. Manchester Musicality
Ones for your playlist - Manchester music you need to know about. In our first Manchester Musicality feature we spotlight Meekz, Comfy, Meduulla, Laeeqa and the incredibly talented - but in my opinion still criminally underrated - North Manchester duo Children of Zeus
Why did I start 1922?
I struggled a lot during my first couple of years of uni, I was going through it in my personal life at the time – you know one of them where you go through one of the most traumatic things in your life and have to just get up the next day like nothing’s happened.
On top of all that, I felt like I could never fully enjoy or commit to the course because I was always worrying about money. It’s a funny thing doing a fashion degree because you’d have someone rocking up in an outfit that costs more than I make in a year and there’s me – choosing between food and bus fare. But despite this I still recognised my privilege. I live at home with my mum, lockdown and furlough allowed me to go back to education in the first place and without either of those factors I don’t think I’d be writing this now. My own experience made me think of all those who might never get the chance to chase their dreams. It made me think of all the kids who leave the care system at 17/18 working multiple jobs just to survive and stay off the streets.
I would say Instagram (and capitalism lol) has a lot to answer for – we’ve romanticised the struggle so much we’ve convinced ourselves that we have to suffer to be successful and anyone who’s having a hard time just isn’t trying hard enough. Sure, a positive mindset and hard work will get you far in life but not everybody can just ‘hard work and positive mindset’ their way out of poverty and oppression. People don’t need billionaire mindset hustler quotes from a random meme page - they need love, genuine community, support and guidance. How many amazing, creative ideas have we missed out on from people who were too busy surviving?
It wasn’t until my final year in uni when my work kind of strayed from solely fashion photography and went down a more ‘socially engaged’ path. As part of the FIMS course all final year students complete a live brief with Selfridges. Getting the same brief as the current Selfridges campaign – but with much more creative freedom – for 2023 we had to choose from a series of headlines as Selfridges reimagined the Yellow Pages with their own free magazine implying they were the ‘directory of fashion’. I remember feeling a bit stuck at first and my tutor Christine who said she wanted to see more of ‘me’ in my work just kind of pointed at the headline “come as you are’” and so that’s what I chose.
When I was starting my initial research into Selfridges I found out their ethos was “Everyone is Welcome’ as they were actually the first department store to allow you to browse without buying anything. I thought well it’s one thing to say everyone is welcome – but do the people actually feel it? Long story short I decided to put it to the test. I collaborated with Sick! Festival a local arts and mental health charity working exclusively across North Manchester. I attended a Moston lane shutters project and convinced some reluctant people there to “model” for me. I asked each person to ‘come as they are’ with 2 outfits that represented their identity. I also made a worksheet with information about Selfridges history and ethos, and a question sheet looking at identity, sustainability and whether they’d feel welcome shopping in Selfridges. I ended up being chosen as one of the winners that year and because they really believed in me and the project I think it really motivated me to keep my work focused on where I’m from and the people we don’t often get to hear from.
I got started on 1922, using my final major project as a launch pad, we had to do 6 shoots for this from our own chosen theme and I got busy photographing and interviewing artists, musicians, designers and more from North Manchester. I started with the people I knew and met some amazingly talented people along the way. As the magazine grew bigger I realised how powerful and important this will be for North Manchester and any other underserved area that gets talked about but not talked to.
1922 isn’t an exclusive club, naturally we're going to spotlight and bring up creatives from the area but with issue 1 featuring diverse talent and voices from Rochdale to Bolton to Merseyside, one thing that unites us is our passion, determination and authenticity.
Why did I call it 1922?
You know what, the one thing that delayed me even getting started on this magazine was the fact I couldn’t think of a name. Like what would you call it? Everything seemed too cringey or ‘already done’. (The North Manchester Evening News was not it). I was overthinking it for ages like please lord give me a sign and I noticed that every time I’d look at the clock it would be 19:22. Now I’m one of those that likes to think everything is a sign from the universe so I googled ‘1922 number meaning’ and it basically said “You have an ability to make a difference in the world with the work that you do. You will struggle but don’t let anyone discourage you and eventually all your hard work will pay off”. I read it and thought, well what could be more fitting than that!
Now you don’t need to believe in angel numbers like me - but it pays to believe in something. Believe in yourself, believe in others - believe that despite all the odds being stacked against you, you can still achieve anything you want in this life.
I put this magazine together on a 2015 laptop with nothing but a part time job and a dream - and how satisfying it will be when it’s finally here.
But this isn’t just about me - or just North Manchester, or just a magazine. It’s about making real, genuine change in the creative industry. It’s about building something from nothing, it’s about working together to build real community, it’s about giving everyone the flowers they deserve - and it’s about something much bigger than this…