Everyday scenes shot by locals show the realities of living in Hackney as people struggle financially
A London School of Economics photography exhibition titled Why are things this way? features pictures by six Hackney locals. The residents took photographs of their day-to-day lives to highlight how they have been affected by the cost-of-living crisis.
Residents were given prompts for the pictures, often showing everyday scenes with captions relating to difficulties the participants were facing at the time. One picture showed the shadows of two people on a pavement, with the description: “That’s my life right now. It’s just survival mode.”
Hackney was chosen as the location for the project because of the vast wealth disparity in the borough. It is also the home of the organisers of the exhibition: artist Andy Sewell and LSE methodology researcher Eileen Alexander.
“We wanted to make something that was embedded in the community [in] which we all live,” Sewell said. “We tried to bring separate worlds in relation to each other.”
The residents came together over a period of two months in 2023 to discuss these prompts and talk about challenges that they have faced and how systems in place affect them. The exhibition shows the pictures and sections of these conversations.
The participants were sourced from a variety of places: Alexander spent time talking to people at food banks, visited Round Chapel in Clapton and even found someone through her son’s school. Sewell, who acted as an art consultant on the project, wrote prompts such as “something difficult” or “meal times”.
The question why are things this way? was returned to frequently throughout the process. The LSE methodology department, who organised it, have said the project “transcends the cost-of-living crisis, exploring the many intersecting challenges people face, interrogating the systems around which our society is structured, and asking what is needed to live a better life. It voices calls for another – more humane – way of thinking about and organising our society.”
The exhibition can be found at the LSE Atrium at the London School of Economics in the Old Building, on Houghton Street WC2A 2AE. It is open from Friday 8 March to Friday 12 April 2024.
