Dominoes

Gillett Square is a unique space in Hackney, London. Derelict and underdeveloped for years, in the 1990s it became an experiment in community regeneration. Like the dominoes they play in the square, those lives are often precarious. Today, it remains a magnet for the dispossessed and those left behind: a metaphor for the current struggle for the heart and soul of the city.

Over the last ten years, I have photographed and recorded the lives of people who float in and around Gillett Square. Lives full of addiction and pain but also of hope and optimism.

I have been privileged to be allowed into people’s lives and homes to photograph their fights, struggles, families, and lovers. Some of these people are now my friends, and some are no longer with us.

These images give an honest glimpse into lives that we may often turn away from but always with a sense of hope. They are the faces of a normally unseen Hackney, nonetheless woven into its fabric. This work is a portrait of those powerless to influence what Hackney – and London – is becoming but also what remains. A brutal but tender place.
This series shows affected people I have worked with over several years who have struggled to overcome poverty and addiction to care for themselves and the people they love.

Dominoes touches on universal themes of love, death, hope, and the evolution of urban communities.