WHAT IS CHEER UP LUV?

Cheer Up Luv is a globally renowned photo series and platform retelling accounts of street harassment. The project combines photography with journalism, activism, and social media, and has gained interest from all over the world. Eliza Hatch founded the campaign after being told to "cheer up" by a stranger in the street. After her male friends dismissed the experience as a “compliment",  she felt inspired to prove them wrong. She realised that not only was the issue completely normalised, but there was a huge lack of awareness surrounding it. Eliza began taking portraits of her friends in public places and posting the photos online. With each location reflecting the testimony of harassment, the effect was empowering survivors by turning a negative memory into something positive. But most importantly, taking back control of the experience and reclaiming the space.

Cheer Up Luv has expanded from an award winning photo series into a multimedia platform, which facilitates a podcast, art, design, submission, workshops, lectures and a safe space for discussions around misogyny and sexism. The photo series has also been exhibited in Colombo, Warsaw, New York, Berlin, Bristol, Oxford, London and partnered with the United Nations in 2019, winning the Webby for Best Individual Editorial Feature with ‘Don’t Look Away’.

The campaign has gained coverage from i-D, Dazed, The Guardian, The Independent, The Washington Post, Wallpaper, The BBC, Marie Claire, Refinery29, Channel 5 News, Wonderland, Grazia, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, ARTE, L’Officiel, Bustle, Creative Boom, It’s Nice That, Mail Online, Metro, Evening Standard, Daily Express, ELLE, Teeth Mag, The Royal Photographic Society, BuzzFeed, Bricks, Gurls Talk and more.

The Cheer Up Luv Podcast, which has hosted guests such as Grace Campbell, MP Stella Creasy, Kenny Ethan Jones, Emma Gannon, and Megan Barton Hanson, has won positive press support from a variety of platforms and was named in ELLE's best podcasts in 2021.

Since 2017 Cheer Up Luv has steadily been growing as a platform and expanding into new mediums. The platform aims to raise awareness of the prevalence of misogyny and sexual assault in our daily lives and facilitate helpful conversations while crushing harmful taboos. Above all, Cheer Up Luv is a project which aims to empower survivors, while tackling the normalisation surrounding sexual harassment.

All photographs by Eliza Hatch
Film photographs taken on Kodak Colour 35mm/120mm film