Ian Scotland LRPS

The 'Village Faces' project invited residents of Crawley Down in West Sussex to have their portrait created by Ian Scotland at a series of 'Drop-in Studio' sessions between May and August 2009.

Each volunteer - who received a free copy of their portrait - was invited to provide some brief biographical detail, including their response to the question:

'What message would you like to pass on to someone looking at your archived picture in 100 years time ?'.

All the portraits - some 110 photographs (and the responses to the '100 year' question) - were shown at an Exhibition (sponsored by West Sussex County Council, Mid Sussex District Council and Park Cameras) which was opened by Lynette Benton of The Royal Photographic Society and the Right Hon Francis Maude, Crawley Down's MP, on the 29th of August 2009.

At the end of the Exhibition, which ran over the Bank Holiday weekend and attracted 250 visitors, the whole collection was retained by West Sussex County Council as an archive item in their Records Office for future generations.

The Exhibition raised funds for St Catherine's Hospice.

The project was featured by Natalie Graham of BBC South-East in the Evening News broadcast on the 29th of August, which can be seen at www.bbc.co.uk/south-east today