The statistics are chilling. In Glasgow, the life expectancy of men is 73.6 years, compared to 79.4 years in the United Kingdom. In the disadvantaged district of Possilpark, it even goes down to 66, the same level as in Eritrea. For women, it reaches 78.5 years in Scotland and 73.1 years in this district, against 83.1 years in the United Kingdom. To evoke this phenomenon of excess mortality of the poorest, the British press has developed the concept of the “Glasgow effect”, a mixture of poor hygiene of life and poverty which shortens life.
Kirsty Mackay, 50, doesn’t want to hear about the expression. The photographer, who grew up in a poor Glasgow neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s, can’t stand it anymore: “It gives the impression that it’s the fault of the Glaswégiens. “ For her, no doubt, “The city has been a victim of public policies”. Premature deaths, the numerous suicides of young people, overdoses are the consequences of political choices.
The weight of fatality
From 2016 to 2020, for his project The Fish That Never Swam (“The fish that never swam”), the photographer returned to her hometown, where a large part of her family still lives, to chronicle the daily life of these abandoned people. But no question of falling into voyeurism, the “Poverty porn” as she calls it. Kirsty Mackay chose to present people, part of their daily life and often carriers of positive projects.
It shows an association which organizes football matches for depressed men. She followed Billy, a 19-year-old political science student whose high school teachers didn’t even consider he could pursue a college education. Finally, “He was fortunate enough to benefit from a tutoring program, which helped him treat his dyslexia. ”
“It was important for me to photograph a baby, to show how the place of its birth will determine its life. Kirsty Mackay
But she also knows the weight of fatality. Kirsty Mackay took a picture of Debbie, with her days old newborn baby in her arms. “It was important for me to photograph a baby, to show how the place of its birth will determine its life. ”
The political choices denounced by the photographer fell on Glasgow in three waves. The first happened in the 1950s. The town hall destroyed the shanty towns and rehoused their inhabitants in large towers or in social housing located on the outskirts, far from everything. “The people were dispersed, which broke up the communities, remembers the photographer. My grandmother and her sister, who lived in the same neighborhood, ended up far from each other. The solidarities woven between people have crumbled. ”
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