We Are Here Windrush photography project documents the lives of Waltham Forest Windrush residents
The project focused on capturing Waltham Forest’s Windrush residents who came to the UK from the Caribbean to create new lives in the borough from the 1950s to the 1970s. The project exhibited 50 new photographic portraits alongside over 100 personal family pictures, mementos and oral testimonies, providing a peek into lives lived in the borough.
Link to exhibition film: https://weareherewf.org/gallery/exhibition-video/
Delivered by Image17, a collective of photographers based in Waltham Forest, the project received a National Lottery Heritage Fund grant for the heritage project, together with support from Waltham Forest Council and Vestry House Museum and was launched at the Vestry House Museum in Waltham Forest on 4th March 2020. However the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown moved everything online.
The lead on this project was Jo Sealy and marketing and communications were managed by To Market with logging of archive materials and curation of the exhibition managed with Image17 members.
The Windrush residents of the borough have contributed to the fabric of Waltham Forest in numerous and surprising ways, yet little evidence of this existed in the borough’s archives. We Are Here uncovered some of these stories which will be archived at Vestry House Museum, available to be shared with all and for posterity.
Students from local schools took part in oral history training and participated in workshops to embed the stories and experiences of this intrepid generation. Additional online events included family activities with a locally based inter-generational arts and workshops group. A set of dedicated teaching resource materials based on the exhibition was developed and made available to Waltham Forest schools.
Commenting on the project, Jo Sealy, lead photographer said: “We are thrilled to have received this support thanks to National Lottery players, Waltham Forest Council and Vestry House Museum, enabling us to capture and celebrate these amazing individuals as they are now and to create a lasting archive from their personal images and mementoes showing their presence, impact and influence within Waltham Forest.”
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