Our first project was created in the midst of the worst knife-crime epidemic London had seen.
Our goal was to reach out to a number of local youth clubs and unite the young people who attend them in one large creative project where they could learn new skills, connect with established professionals, explore their creativity and increase their confidence. Our theme was ‘An Eye For Peace’ – What does peace mean to you? And how can you capture that in a photograph?
We delivered free workshops to youth clubs in Brixton, Clapham and West Norwood lead by industry leading professional photographers Simon Denton, Gibson Blanc and Ellie Laycock (founder). Participants were provided with the technical rudiments of lighting and photography. The workshops then went on to explore how to approach the subject matter and methods of representation. This was followed by brainstorming and group discussions on the construction of imagery.
Participants were then provided with their own disposable cameras and a deadline to complete the task.
After the deadline, the cameras were collected and the film sent to be developed.
Once the prints were back, the participants engaged in group critiques and analysis of their work, including self-analysis and selection of imagery to be exhibited. They were also invited to write about their experiences and reasoning behind their selections. Once this was complete, we could pull together the exhibition. It was amazing to see how they had interpreted and worked with their brief and it became quite clear all the young people involved had very definite ideas of what peace meant to them as young adults and the importance of peace in our communities.
We needed to find a venue that was on neutral ground, so that all of our participants could attend the opening night of their exhibition. Synchronicity lead us to collaborate with The Apollo Project, a group of artists and creatives who had taken over the derelict Apollo video store in Herne Hill to put on a month long residency of cultural events. Perfect!
With help from participants and their families, volunteers and other supporters, we mounted and hung the exhibition in the gallery space and set up for the opening night. Epson kindly supported us with printing out the whole exhibition.
We offered one of our participants, Tanika, the opportunity to be our official photographer (and gain some extra on the job training) for the opening night. Well done Tanika! You can see her gallery at the bottom of this page.
Another pro photographer supporter, Claire Richardson, was on hand to shoot our mugshots in our ‘I Stand For Peace’ booth. We had live music and refreshments and a huge turn out from participants and their proud families and carers, the youth support workers, local councillors, representatives from National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain and Lambeth Council, plus many more friends and supporters of our project and the local community. Not to mention a news crew from London Tonight and many local newspaper journalists. You can see our press coverage and awards here.
Our participants were very happy to see the fruits of their efforts with many of them appearing in the local press. Check out their amazing photography and thoughtful comments on the work in the Eye For Peace Gallery.
Ellie and Matt would like to thank everyone who helped to make this project possible. It’s amazing what can happen when people join forces for peace….
