THE IDENTITY of Southampton is explored through video at an exhibition celebrating 50 years of the city’s status.

Artist Steve Hawley and Southampton Solent lecturer and documentary maker Tony Steyger have teamed up to create a installation for the University’s Showcase Gallery on Above Bar Street.

Using slow-motion video and drones, the exhibition – called Stranger Than Known: South Home Town – features archived footage of the city, including a video recorded in the Far East and screened to families back home.

Made during the Second World War by the Army Film Unit, the Calling Blighty films enabled soldiers serving abroad to record visual messages for their families.

The Daily Echo reported the screening at the Classic Cinema on May 1, 1944, when one soldier appeared on screen saying to the camera, “Hello Bobby, can you see me?”

His son stood up in the audience and replied “Yes Daddy, I see you.”

As previously reported by the Daily Echo, Robert Kneller was the five-year-old who delightfully responded to his father George Albert Kneller.

He was a gunner serving in Burma during the conflict, after he was filmed as part of a morale-boosting documentary for families of soldiers away from home.

Speaking about the exhibition, co-creator Tony said: “This evocative installation offers a vision of the city and its edges, glimpsing ghosts of the past to transform the everyday.”

Alongside the gallery exhibition is a community art space showcasing the work Southampton schools and colleges – including Kanes Hill Primary School and St Anne’s Catholic School – who have contributed to the project.

n The exhibition is open to the public from today until February 7 at the University’s Showcase Gallery.

Gallery opening times are Monday to Friday 11am to 6pm and Saturdays 11am to 5pm.

The gallery will be closed from December 22 January 4.