Adrian Arbib: Solsbury Hill
Friday 28th October – Friday 25th November. Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm. Hereford College of Arts, Folly Lane, Hereford, HR1 1LT
Solsbury Hill was published to coincide with the 15th anniversary of the 1994 Solsbury Hill road protest, one of the first major anti-roads protests of the 1990s. This exhibition of beautifully reproduced photographs by Adrian Arbib documents all aspects of that protest.
At the time of the protest, Margaret Thatcher’s “largest road building programme since the Romans” was in full swing under John Major. A rising tide of non-violent protest emerged across the country. In Bath, the Bath Easton bypass was set to destroy the ancient monument and much loved beauty spot, Solsbury Hill. Was it just a bypass or part of a Euro route intended to feed even more traffic onto Britain’s roads?
Armed with little more than rope harnesses and mobile phones the size of bricks, the protesters were faced with often violent private security forces in muddy fields, high in the trees and even underground. Adrian Arbib lived on site photographing the events. In so doing, he captured all aspects of life on the protest. His work is a unique record of an important moment in British political history when a political movement changed government transport policy.
Since then draconian public order laws now threaten to criminalise otherwise law abiding citizens seeking to have their say. Will we ever see protests like those documented so well in Solsbury Hill again?
Adrian Arbib studied photography at the London College of Printing. Focusing on indigenous land rights, he has worked all over the world including in Africa, West Papua, India and Mongolia. His photographs have been widely published in the world’s press. In 1997 he was awarded the Royal Geographical Society’s Cherry Kearton Medal for his work with indigenous groups. He was recently threatened with 5 years in jail for photographing N Power contractors destroying a Kingfisher's nest, which became a test case for the media's right to cover protests. He also gave evidence at the Government Select Committee on policing protests.
Photographer’s talk - Adrian Arbib
Monday 31st October
10am
Media Centre, Hereford College of Arts, Bath Street, Hereford, HR1 1HY
Free to HPF Friends / £2 on door