‘It’s greed, that’s what it’s about’: documenting the UK’s cost of living crisis – photo essay

Photographer Kirsty Mackay’s project The Magic Money Tree explores the impact of poverty in the Black Country, South Shields and Bristol

• The Magic Money Tree exhibition is at the New Art Gallery Walsall from 9 March to 14 July

In 2023 I set out to document the UK’s cost of living crisis. I had a picture in my mind that what we were experiencing was the culmination of 13 years of Conservative governments. The work is titled The Magic Money Tree after Theresa May’s words on BBC Question Time: “There isn’t a magic money tree that suddenly delivers all the money everybody wants.”

I spent a month visiting the North Bristol food bank, talking to people, listening to their experiences and gathering stories. We decided not to photograph people using the food bank but to take their experiences and write them large across bus shelters and pavements on the high street.