UK at Home invites you to document through digital photography the incredible range of places you call home. From 24-30th September 2007, you can submit a a digital photograph relating to a single announced theme. Throughout the week participants are also invited to take general shots of what makes their home special. Fifty of the world’s leading photographers will also be taking part. “We want to capture the emotions of being home,” says John Easterby, the photography director of UK at Home.  “The word ‘home’ itself means something very special to us Brits; yet at the same time, it also evokes different things for each of us.  Our goal is to capture those commonalities – and those differences.” The best pictures, as chosen by a team of leading picture editors, will be published in a book in February 2008

UK at Home Press Release

Millions of simultaneous snapshots will show what “home” means to the UK public

September 2007 - From 24-30 September 2007 Britons from all walks of life and from every corner of the UK will be invited to participate - alongside fifty of the world’s leading photographers - in an unprecedented photographic documentation of the single most important place in their lives: the home.

For these seven days, UK at Home is asking public participants to join some of the best, prize-winning photographers in the UK including Jocelyn Bain Hogg, Roger Hutchings, Dod Miller, Mary McCartney, Murdo MacLeod and Simon Roberts. Over a hundred thousand participants are expected to take part. They will document, through digital photography, the incredible range of places they call home; the unique items and heirlooms by which they define themselves; and how advances in society, technology and the environment have transformed the British home.

From castles to stone huts, suburban semi-detached homes to houseboats, wag mansions to squats, post-modern penthouses to quaint cottages, the public is invited to help document the harmonies and paradoxes of home-life across the UK over a single seven day period.

The best pictures, as chosen by a team of leading picture editors, will be published in a book in February 2008 and across a broad media platform including online and travelling exhibitions. Some of the UK’s greatest novelists, essayists and historians will provide essays for the book.

Against All Odds Productions, the team behind UK at Home, are internationally renowned for creating some of the most successful photography books ever published.

Getting involved
Each day from 24-30 September, participants will be asked to take a digital photograph relating to a single announced theme – morning rush, dinnertime, night-time rituals, most cherished possession – and submit them to the project’s website at www.ukathome.co.uk.  Throughout the week participants are also invited to take general shots of what makes their home special. Upwards of a million photograph submissions are expected to be generated.

UK at Home will stand as a visual time capsule capturing the extraordinary diversity in the way Brits live at the beginning of the 21st century.

Subjects covered by the professional photographers include
- A Royal memorabilia collector in Wembley whose rooms are each stuffed with a different Royal theme
- The home of the Greenskeeper at St. Andrews Golf course
- The eco-home of a woman, in Teepee Valley, Wales who lives in a yurt, attached to which is a geodesic dome, inhabited by her children
- A lawnmower collector in Southport
- An Indian home wedding
- Three generations of a family living next to each other
- Home portraits of a Vicar, Priest, Rabbi and Imam in the same neighbourhood
- A Star Trek home in Hinckley, Leicestershire
- Home birth

“We want to capture the emotions of being home,” says John Easterby, the photography director of UK at Home.  “The word ‘home’ itself means something very special to us Brits; yet at the same time, it also evokes different things for each of us.  Our goal is to capture those commonalities – and those differences.”

“In 2003 digital cameras outsold film cameras. In 2004 mobile phone cameras outsold digital cameras. By the end of 2007, 1.5 billion people will be carrying camera-phones with them day and night. The ability to shoot and then instantly share images is dramatically changing the way humanity sees itself and how each of us tells our own stories. This project represents something that couldn’t have been done even two years ago. It is one of the best examples to date of the merging and ‘mashing’ of professionally edited materials with content generated by the public,” says Rick Smolan President of Against All Odds.

“Our goal,” says Rick Smolan, “is to create not just a book, but a body of images that will serve as a mirror to provide Brits a better understanding of themselves today; and as a vivid reminder for their great grandchildren of what daily life in the UK was really like. We believe this will be the most exciting photography book publishing event in UK history and the most personal because, after all, there is no place like home.”

Purchasers of the finished UK at Home book will be able to customize the book’s cover to feature their own photo of their home or family.  This is the first time custom covers are being offered in the UK. The covers launched Against All Odds’ America 24/7 onto the New York Times bestseller lists (more than 120,000 people - over 20% of all book purchasers - personalized the book with their own photos).

UK at Home details
What: The biggest ever public participation photography project.  Fifty top photographers and the UK public depict the entire UK population at home
Where: Throughout the UK
When: The week of 24th – 30th September
Who: Anyone in the UK who owns a digital camera or camera phone

Website: www.ukathome.co.uk
 
UK at Home book details
·    224 Pages
·    12 in x 9.8 in format on heavy paper stock
·    French fold covers
·    Customizable book cover
·    Publication date:  February TK, 2008

About Against All Odds
Previous projects from Against All Odds Productions have become international bestsellers (the Day in the Life series, America 24/7, One Digital Day, 24 Hours in Cyberspace, and The Power to Heal, among others). Against All Odds creates collaborative events to produce highly successful photography publications and multi-platform projects.

More than five million copies of Against All Odds’ books are in print and four of them have been New York Times bestsellers, including the number one best seller, A Day in the Life of America, the largest-selling photography book in history. Most recently, America 24/7 became Against All Odds’ fourth New York Times bestseller.

About the UK at Home sponsors
Given the landmark nature of UK at Home it is not surprising that the world’s leading home furnishing company IKEA, is the projects main sponsor. IKEA is passionate about life at home and is sponsoring the book as part of a major new brand campaign which it is launching simultaneously entitled ‘Home is the most Important place in the World’. IKEA is both promoting UK at Home in its stores and extending an invitation to co-workers and customers to participate. “Our support for the UK at Home project is a perfect fit” commented Peter Hogstead, IKEA UK Country Manager.

Snapfish: The UK at Home book project is an innovative example of the power of the Internet that underscores collaboration on a broad scale. This follows the success of the bestselling America 24/7, where participation with HP’s Snapfish enabled the capture and collection of simultaneous snapshots of moments and events in America as seen through the eyes of professional photographers and everyday people. HP’s Snapfish will again serve as the engine for this exciting new project.

Other supporting sponsors include Google and BabyCenter who are each inviting substantial portions of their audiences to participate in UK at Home.

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