‘Five Years Later’
Five years ago, for the E17 Art Trail 2019, I photographed twenty young ‘tweens’ who were on the cusp of leaving primary school and entering a new chapter in their lives. My artwork is often influenced by things close to home, and this project was no exception. My daughter, and her friends were the subjects of this portrait series. I was interested in this in between stage, not young children anymore, but not yet teenagers either. I hoped to capture a snapshot of their lives at that time and some of their fears and hopes for the future. Choosing to photograph them in their bedrooms, I wanted to show something of their individual personalities.
At the time, I wondered what it would be like to follow this up a few years later and see how they had turned out as teenagers. Would their surroundings look very different? Would they have turned into stereotypical ‘moody teenagers’? Would they even let me take their photograph again?
The biennial E17 Art Trail should have taken place in 2023 but unfortunately due to lack of funding had to be postponed. However, the fact that it’s happening now, in 2024 means that those ‘tweens’ are now on the cusp of another important benchmark in their lives. They are all currently doing their GCSEs and (most of them) are about to leave the familiar surroundings of their current schools and go on to sixth form colleges.
I approached all of the previous participants, and was pleasantly surprised that most of them agreed to take part. One boy is currently living in the United States, so he was a bit tricky to reach! There were another two who are now living outside London, but I was lucky enough to photograph them on a visit back to Walthamstow. Obviously this meant I couldn’t take the shots in their bedrooms, but I improvised!
There were a few that said no, and a couple of shoots that it was just too difficult to coordinate. I also gave them the option of being photographed in a creative way, if they didn’t want their face in the image. Actually only one person took me up on this.
It’s fascinating to see how they have changed (or not) and who was up for being photographed again. Some of the images are shown below.
I’d like to thank all of these amazing young people for taking part, and wish them all the best for the next chapter in their lives!
The exhibition was on at Biba Browns, 163 Wood Street, E17 3LX for the duration of the 2024 E17 Art Trail
It’s number 136 on the Art Trail app. Find it here.
