IF YOU asked a Brighton resident about the most beautiful places in the city, you would probably get the same sorts of answers.

The Pavilion, the Dome, the beach – these are all popular choices.

But there are many people who would argue Whitehawk, the small neighbourhood tucked in the east of the city, is a place of its own beauty,

Curtis James, a photographer, grew up in the neighbourhood’s Bristol Estate and lived there for 20 years.

He has now returned to help the area’s residents document the lives of those who live there, using their cameras.

Mr James said: “I got to the point where I wanted to do something with the community I grew up in.

“This kind of work shouldn’t be done to people but by and with people. I came up with this idea for people to document their own lives.”

Mr James then asked around the neighbourhood, trying to find residents who did not have much photography experience for his “Whitehawk Volumes” project.

“I was pretty adamant that I wanted to find people who hadn’t been involved in this kind of thing before, just normal people,” the 45-year-old said.

That was when he came across Lisa Pettitt, now a housekeeping supervisor at a Travelodge who had coincidentally been in Mr James’s class for five years back in their school days.

He said: “It was great to catch up with someone I had never really talked to before, even if we weren’t in the same friendship groups back then.”

Ms Pettitt, 44, said she always was the family photographer but wanted to get involved in the project to spread a good message about the city.

She said: “Whitehawk always gets a lot of negativity. You hear everyone’s on benefits, no one works, there was a stupid figure that 80 per cent of children here don’t go to school. It’s just rubbish.

“This community always pulls together when things go wrong, and you don’t get that in a lot of places any more.”

Ms Pettitt, of Upper Chalvington Place, went on walks around the neighbourhood, the nearby Royal Sussex County Hospital, and Brighton Marina, snapping photos as she went.

But she said the most profound experience was taking photos at Race Hill, where her son-in-law Alex Jackson tragically died in a car accident five years ago.

She said: “This project made me look at Race Hill in a different way, as well as Whitehawk as a whole.

“It was quite surprising realising how many pictures you can take of somewhere you’ve lived in all your life.

“I think it’s one of the things you taking for granted, things that are around you every day.”

Sharon Scaife, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 15 years, was also recruited by Mr James to take part in the project.

She had recently ended her successful campaign to prevent housing from being built on Whitehawk Nature Reserve.

The office manager said: “One of the selling points for these proposed houses was that people would get a sea view and countryside views.

“But people in the blocks behind them, who had these views for 60 years, wouldn’t have them any more.”

Ms Scaife said she focused her photography on the natural side of Whitehawk rather than the people in it, but now feels closer to its community than ever.

She said: “I felt like I wasn’t part of the community before.

“I would go to community events and other things but I always felt out on the periphery.

“I got up, left Whitehawk for work, and then I would come home and that would be it.

“After this I really felt like I was involved. There’s a lot of things happening here and community support.

“People are proud to live here.”

The pictures by Ms Scaife and Ms Pettitt will be exhibited at the Crew Club, in Coolham Drive, from June 12 to 15.

Mr James said: “The overriding message is one of hope, but not false hope.

“I left school with no qualifications and I’ve now found myself doing some really interesting things in life.

“I like to think there are people in Whitehawk who will be the same.”

Anyone interested in getting involved with the project can email Mr James at info@whitehawkvolumes.org.