In a bid to represent the past and predicted present, 'We are shadows' looks back at the movement that took place in the early nineties that shook youth culture across Britain.
Britain had fallen into a recession a few years prior and this movement was believed to be a back lash effect from such an issue. Opportunity had dried up, employment was scarce and there was no money being pumped into a generation charged with energy and frustration. With a feeling of disconnection this group of people aged from twelve to mid twenties began to hang around parks and other 'doss' areas with time to kill.
Under the surface, a music scene was erupting. The 'rave' movement was born and the youth of this period had become the roots from which it stemmed. Hand in hand with this new wave of culture came a new drugs culture, shortly followed by a rise in crime. There was now something to focus this energy and frustration on.
This body of work focuses on a working to middle-class suburb in Cardiff between the years of 1992 - 1997. It was at this time that a quiet and respectable suburb –Whitchurch- found its youth generation at war with itself and its other inhabitants. This ‘gang’, free of care, respect, morals and hope, single-handedly brought crime levels to an all new high - theft, breaking and entry, assault, vandalism, drug pushing and high rates of drug consumption all rife within the gang itself.
This behaviour had such an effect that many of the suburbs residents chose not to leave their home after dark, and the areas that this group resided in were steered clear of by all people from the 'outside'.
This work in progress will then look forward to the present at an era that is now turning full circle. As we step out from Britain's economic crash of the 00's and a 'new rave' scene is once more creeping out from the wood work, these gangs are starting to form once more.
With the opportunity to capture the present as it unfolds, the work within this documentary will shift from conceptual to portraiture in a bid to document the faces of the repeated movement.
