‘Photo Voices - Our Neighbourhood’
240 Project, Autumn 2024
Partners: Looking for Change & the 240 Project
Location: 240 Project, Latymer Community Church, 240 Lancaster Rd, London W11 4AH
Objectives: To provide a stimulating activity involving photography; to improve, or introduce people to, photographic skills & to encourage participants to reflect on their neighbourhood & explore a place that is special to them within it.
The 240 Project is an arts & health activity centre for people affected by isolation, homelessness & exclusion in the borough of Kensington & Chelsea in West London. It’s based in a building directly opposite the shrouded remains of Grenfell Tower, in a borough with the greatest economic inequality in London.
What we did:
Together with the team at 240 we designed an introductory project ‘Photo Voices - Our Neighbourhood’, with a view to doing further projects in the future.
It comprised 6 all day sessions over a period of 6 weeks. Six people took part in the whole project, two others dipped in & out. Some had experience in photography others not, all lived in the neighbourhood.
As one of the objectives was to improve photographic skills we used more advanced cameras rather than the basic models we generally use, & also incorporated photographic assignments into the day as well as setting them as homework.
Over the course of the project participants explored their neighbourhood, photographing things or places they liked & disliked, were inspired by, were proud of or would like to change. Using a projector the photos were shared & discussed each session, the discussions became gradually more personal, & the subject of Neighbourhood explored in more depth, as the project evolved.
Group activities based around photographs from our photo library provoked dialogue & built visual literacy skills & confidence.
Finally each person selected a set of their images to ‘tell the story of their Special Place’ & wrote captions to accompany the images if they wished.
The subjects in the final stories really varied, one addressed the memory of Grenfell, one the significance of the 240 project in her life, another the importance of artistic expression for her mental health, while another showed nature & green spaces to be a source of comfort.
The project ended with a celebration to which all the members of the 240 Project were invited, to see an exhibition of framed prints & a slideshow of the individual stories.
The feedback from all the participants was positive, many felt inspired to continue taking photographs & improve their skills more, while others found the activities & discussions using photos from the photo library were stimulating & got them thinking. They all asked to continue.
Everyone enjoyed the slideshow & the chance to take home a framed print to hang on their wall.
We plan to return for a follow up project later in the year, possibly to explore the issue of the shrouded tower, but they might have other ideas, we’ll discuss it & they will decide.
Quotes from the feedback:
“When I stop & look at what’s in front of me my mind fills up & I let go of the sadness I have inside me” PR 9/10/24
“It was lovely to see my final photos in the slideshow, I thought they looked great! “ LC 9/10/24