The square
Dennis playing dominoes
Dominoes is central to Caribbean culture and is a unifying force for the different generations.
Players
There is often a hard edge to humour on the square.
Nina by the window
The street party
Regulars of the square gather outside a friend’s house during a local street summer party.
Vitali rest in peace
Vitali was found dead in 2014 near the square with a needle in his arm.
Nina at the club
Nina at her favourite DJ pub, where she can escape for a while from her worries.
In the early hours
Michelle at her party
Michelle needs a powered wheel chair to get around. She is constantly in battles with her housing association to improve the quality of her apartment and has been threatened with eviction for having loud parties.
Contemplating wasted years
P spoke eloquently and vividly about the hold that heroin addiction has over his life. The sacrifices he has made and the waste of a promising career in music. Faith in God has helped him to continue to look forward.
From "oxy" to heroin
Since relieving childhood trauma with her aunt’s oxyContin medication J rapidly became a heroin addict. Her promising studies as a nurse in tatters, she must survive on the streets and hope she survives another winter.
RIP Bianca
A victim of violence, abuse and alcoholism, Bianca finally succumbed to complications arising from throat cancer in 2022.
Paul and Bianca dancing
Karina and Nina
Nina has fought hard to overcome drug and alcohol dependency and how has a thriving new daughter, Karina. it is still a struggle for her to find appropriate housing and mental health support.
Paul's daughter
Kenyatta
Dancing to a sound system in the square.
The square from above with bubbles
Graham
RIP, Graham took his own life after being pressured into moving from his home of many years by the council. It was judged to be too big - the so called “bedroom tax”.
Portraits on the wall of Gillett Square 2016
A collaboration with photographer Holly Revell who took these portraits of some of the regular participants in the square.
Portraits by Holly Revell 2015
Nina, Max, Paul and Bianca shot by Holly Revell.
Dominoes
Dominoes is the title of my photobook, to be published by Dewi Lewis in 2024. It began life in a place called Gillett Square in the east end of London around 2012. It is a remarkable eco-system in which skate boarders, parents, children, hula-hoopers, domino players, DJs, drinkers and addicts all intermingle.
I spent ten years from 2012 listening to, photographing and documenting some of the most issue-affected lives that passed through the square. Their stories are full of addiction and pain, but, also of hope and optimism. Like in the games of Dominoes they often play, their fate is precarious, they need a lot of luck to make it through.
Gillett Square was born out of a genuinely consultative process and yet there are those with deep roots in the local area who miss the camaraderie of the old car park.
Nina is a Roma from Portugal who escaped a life of familial abuse to find work and a better life in London. I have followed her courageous battle to overcome homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, to the birth of her two youngest children.
Paul and Bianca’s lives were very much intertwined until Bianca’s sad death in 2022. Bianca was one of the most troubled and vulnerable people I met in the square. Deeply alcoholic, she had a history of trauma and relied heavily on Paul for emotional support.
Paul strives to manage his heroin addiction and stay out of trouble so that he can always be a loving presence for his children.
Much has been done to reduce drug related deaths in the borough but not everyone I photographed got the help they needed in time to save them.
These are all people whose voices deserve to be listened to as their city and neighbourhood changes around them so rapidly.
The multi-media piece expands this story with recorded interviews.