Changing the picture - photography exhibition - Cambridge

From cambridge-news.co.uk

An exhibition with a difference is currently on show in the city: EMMA HIGGINBOTHAM went to meets its photographers, a group of young Travellers from Cambridge and St Neots.

FROM beautifully composed portraits to breathtaking landscapes, the photographs on display at Michaelhouse are sure to impress even the toughest of critics.

But Life Through a Lens is no ordinary exhibition. The photographers behind the images are actually 10 young Travellers, who are on a mission to change the way we see them.

Aged between 11 and 21, they’re all on a new course at Cambridge Regional College.

It’s the brainchild of photography lecturer Julia Johnson, pictured, who was keen to give local Travellers a voice.

And, she says, the results have been better than expected: “By far! They really excelled themselves,” she smiles. “Because they had such strong issues with the way they’ve been represented, they really tried their best to show the reality of Traveller life, which isn’t often shown.”

Julia is referring to Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, Channel 4’s top-rated documentary series about the flamboyant nuptials of Irish Travellers.

“The problem is it’s done for entertainment,” she says. “If you take a group of people that’s actually treated very badly, with a history of violence and hatred against them, and you repetitively pick a sole way of depicting them – through weddings – it’s really unfair.”

Combating that image has been the driving force behind the 20-week course, which leads to a GCSE-equivalent Arts Award. It’s now almost at the end of its run, but Julia is hoping to lead more courses for travelling youngsters, many of whom leave school at an early age.

Not surprisingly, Julia won’t be drawn on her favourite, but points to an image by 17-year-old Traveller Billy, from Cambridge, showing his little brother sitting on a hill. “I think it’s one of the strongest. He says that the light and shadows represent the cage of racism that his brother might experience, but may not yet be aware of.

“Billy feels that the whole project has shown him, in his own words, that ‘the non-travelling community don’t hate us’. It made me want to cry when he said it, but there is such a lot of prejudice.”

Julia reckons she’s learned as much from her pupils as they have from her, and says that her one abiding memory will be their passion: “There’s so much raw emotion about how people view them.

“But hopefully this has shown that there is a way of achieving something for themselves, and that something positive can come from their anger and frustration.”

Life Through a Lens: My Gypsy Culture is at Michaelhouse, Trinity Street, Cambridge, until Saturday. The project was funded by Suffolk charity Ormiston Children and Families Trust (www.ormiston.org).

To buy limited edition prints, for a suggested donation of £25, email communications@ormiston.org or call (01473) 705022.

For more information about Julia’s work, visit www.jcjphotographer.com.