Lungs of the City

Lungs of the City

Preview: Friday 6th October 6-8pm
Open: Sat 7th & Sun 8th October 12-4pm

Photographer Paul Williams will be showing pinhole photographs from his MA project ‘Lungs of the City’, together with a gallery of submissions from the public who are encouraged to take part (see below) and take photographs or produce artworks of the urban trees of Portsmouth.

Curated by ASP artist Adrian Mundy

In connection with The Good Mental Health Cooperative
www.goodmentalhealth.org.uk

Exhibition at Art Space Portsmouth,
27 Brougham Road, Portsmouth, PO5 4PA

How to take part

A chance to open our eyes to the power of nature on our doorstep.

‘Lungs of the City’ is a challenge to take photographs (or create art) of the trees within Portsmouth – to open our eyes and see nature’s ability to recover from man-made development in our own neighborhood. You are invited to start taking photographs now, so click here for a few practical tips:

Urban trees are often referred to as the “lungs of the city” because of their ability to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. Trees provide numerous benefits to urban environments, including improving air quality, reducing noise pollution, and providing shade.
The impact that spending time in natural spaces has on supporting good mental health and wellbeing has long been known. Hippocrates stated that “Nature itself is the best physician” over 2000 years ago, yet much of the UK population live in densely populated urban areas which have a reduced access to natural green spaces.

Portsmouth is the second most densely populated city in the UK and has tree canopy coverage of just 9.8 %, yet there are approximately 86,500 trees in total across Portsmouth of which roughly 8,581 are street trees.

Last year Portsmouth was one of 19 cities in the UK to receive special recognition as a Tree City of the World for their commitment to effective urban forestry management and has begun a programme of community planting projects, with over 5000 new trees planted within the community.

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How to submit your photos and artworks

  • To highlight the importance of trees to our mental and physical health, an exhibition of Lungs of the City will take place at Art Space Portsmouth 6th-8th October during the Mental Wealth Festival.
  • Actively take time to explore the area around Portsmouth where you live and take photographs of what the trees mean to you.
  • Send the photographs to paulw@photographer.net and enclose the What3Words location so we can follow your progress.
  • The collection of photographs will be published as a free on-line photo book, and a selection of these will be exhibited during the Mental Wealth Festival in October.

To find Green Spaces near you have a look on Google Earth.