KATY McGAHAN
 

Something in the Air (2025) 

After participating in a workshop led by filmmaker Karel Doing (who coined the term 'phytogram' to describe a process that uses the natural chemical compounds in plants to create images on photographic paper or film) at at LUX in north London a few years ago, I have been experimenting with the technique ever since.

I eventually came up with the idea of bringing the process into the realm of my environmental activism, in that I source the plants that 'star' in my phytology films from various contested places - green spaces or brownfield sites - across Manchester - places that are being hard fought for by local people who are in desperate need of more green space in their respective neighbourhoods as high-rises proliferate around them. Families are being enticed to live in central Manchester but the provision of green space is lacking. 

These photographs were taken at  Trees Not Cars campaigning events in and around the contested 5.5 acres derelict site at Ancoats, Manchester, and at participatory art
workshops that I organised at the site before it was closed off to the public by the developers. Read more about the campaign on the Trees Not Cars and please support their cause in whatever way you can.
 
Campaigners continue to fight for the provision of a multi-purpose park for the
community on the Ancoats site as part of the large-scale development programme.
Work is underway to build the Manchester Digital Campus, a major £310 million government office and digital hub on the former Central Retail Park site that borders
Great Ancoats Street, one of the most polluted thoroughfares in Manchester. There's
room for a decent sized park for the local community - but is there the will to install one
on the part of the local government?
 
I interviewed Professor Sheena Cruikshank, Professor of Public Engagement and Biomed Sci, Division of Immunology, Immunity to Infection and Repiratory Medicine, at The University of Manchester, in October 2025.

                "Manchester is one of the most polluted cities in the UK unfortunately. It's been approximated that there's around 1,200 deaths per year attributed to poor air quality and you can see this sort of trend in data when you look at, for example, hospitalisations for
respiratory conditions (of which) we've seen a doubling in the last two years or so for people under the age of 19 which is quite shocking data...in...some parts of the city centre the average
limits are over five times greater than what the WHO would recommend.

The cities in the UK have been historically quite polluted and of course Manchester's got better
in a lot of ways if you think back to the industrial revolution Manchester was incredibly
polluted and there was these awful black smogs so things are better than that and things are improving bit by bit but I think one of the biggest differences with Manchester compared to some of the other cities is that other cities have been able to take some really big steps. If you look at

London, for example, that's taken huge steps to reduce the amount of traffic coming into the city centre - and traffic is a major contributer - we've also seen big changes in Birmingham aswell so I think we do have some issues around our traffic infrastructure, our travel infrasctructure...

 

Pollution unfortunately doesn't affect everyone equally, and, as often is the case,  it's sometimes the most deprived people that are the most vulnerable to the worst effects of pollution, partly

because they may be living in more polluted areas. Also pollution seems to affect the very

very young worse, including babies when they're inside your tummy, before you're actually

born so it can affect the development of the baby's lungs for example. And older people aswell

seem to be much much more susceptible to the worst that pollution can do, so it's like all

these things, its not equal.

 

Broadly speaking, the incidents of things like asthma and other chronic immune disorders

is increasing. We are seeing year on year more cases being diagnosed and unfortunately more

and more people being hospitalised. And we've also done some research that even tried to do some mapping data with people across the UK looking at the symptoms, so it was a science project, and people were reporting that they have worse symptoms in areas with higher levels of pollution and also their symptoms lasted for longer".

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