To mark the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush’s arrival in the UK, award-winning social documentary photographer Jim Grover brings his highly acclaimed photo-story, Windrush: Portrait of a Generation to St John’s Smith Square’s crypt. This photography exhibition is free to enter and will run from Thursday 1st to Friday 30th June.
Grover’s particular interest is photographing people and communities in South London and documenting their daily lives and relationships. What started as an invite to play dominoes with his local community led Grover on an unexpected undertaking that resulted in Windrush: Portrait of a Generation. He realised that there was a much bigger and more important story to be told than dominoes, a story about the way this proud community of first-generation migrants from the Caribbean live their daily lives, true to their traditions.
Grover committed to photographing and uncovering the stories of the South London Windrush community for a year. This moving exhibition portrays the current lives and traditions of the first generation of Caribbean migrants, many of whom, now in their late 60s to 90s, live in Brixton and Clapham. First exhibited in May 2018 at the Oxo Gallery, London, the exhibition was praised for being poignant and intimate… moving and often beautiful (The Observer).
Grover comments, This has proven to be, by far, the most challenging photo-essay I have ever undertaken but also the most important. As I became increasingly immersed in this project, I realised that I was capturing living history. As this generation passes away, and the younger generations move on, some of these traditions will become lost forever. And so it felt imperative to document this way of life and to record these stories before it becomes too late.
St John’s Smith Square will host an exhibition launch party in their crypt on Wednesday 7th June, with Jim Grover speaking at the event.
