The Halifax Grid Project
In Search of Urban Happiness
The Crossley Gallery
Saturday 26th October – 9th February 2025
This ‘portrait’ of the Halifax area in 2023 was carried out by 63 contributors from the local community. They produced 2471 photographs and 41 pieces of writing.
Their work forms the most recent Grid Project, a project which uses systematic approaches to documentary photography and seeks to avoid cherry-picking solely picturesque outcomes.
What makes us happy in our environment?
This project uses photography and writing to look at the question from a less-than-conventional point of view. Typically, we might be happy if we inhabit a place with, say, low crime, good schools, friendly neighbourhoods, low-volume traffic, attractive views with lots of trees, clean and tidy streets and so on.
We looked at a different dimension of happiness, based on The Image of the City (1960) by Kevin Lynch. It’s concerned with the sense of wellbeing we get when we possess a strong image of our town or city.
