Peckham is a place called Home

3 Oct-31 Oct 2023

Overview

Peckham is a place. Peckham is my home. Peckham is a place called home.

Home is more than the four bricked walls in which we lay our heads when the sunsets and the night-time comes. Home is comfort, Home is refuge, Home is community, Home is a place where you belong.

Inspired by Mark Sealy's book Decolonizing the Camera: Photography in Racial Time, Peckham is a place called Home is a free photography exhibition that seeks to explore the interconnectivity of Peckham and its people. The camera has been used as a tool of warping history, particularly that of those seen as ‘Other’ since its invention many centuries ago. This exhibition aims to highlight the importance of photographic archives in documenting a history that is true to life; a history that tells the story of the community without alteration and brings to light untold stories.

The exhibition is compartmentalised into several series:

Place & Faces: a two-part series that hones in on the people and parts of the community that make Peckham feel like home.
Da Mandem: consisting of 11 gritty images of men who were born and raised in Peckham, illustrating their journey of becoming.
Peckham BMX Club: over 37 images of the Black leaders and keen youth who frequent Peckham BMX track in Burgess Park.
Peckham is Protesting; Cross’ most recent series in Peckham, documenting the peaceful protest held by members of the community following the infamous hair shop incident in September.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Christian Cross is a self taught professional photographer with a vast photographic archive that continues to grow. Born and raised in Peckham, Christian prides in his photographic documentation of the community as an act of preserving its history. Many of the images in his collection are of people, buildings and locations that are bound to be erased as history continues to rewrite itself. His down to earth approach and personality is evident in the candid images he captures, and it's telling that most pictures taken are true to life. Cross understands the importance of photographing what is 'true', this can be seen in his unedited images which depict a story that is made very clear to the viewer.

ABOUT THE BHE

The BHE is an emerging platform dedicated to working with Black visual artists of all mediums. The BHE collaborates with artists to curate free, public experimental exhibitions, The aim is to enrich others through the diversity and range of Black art by Black creatives.

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