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AN EXHIBITION featuring haunting black-and-white photographs of a troubled Afro-Caribbean community in 1970s Islington, by acclaimed photographer Colin Jones, launches Black History Month at London College of Communication on 1 October. Recently published in book form, the images capture the dignity and despair of an Afro-Caribbean community shunned by society at a time of social unrest.
The photographs were commissioned by the Sunday Times in the late 1970s to document the day-to-day life of the residents of the Harambee Project’s hostel in Islington, North London. Photographer Colin Jones, who has been described as “the George Orwell of British photography”, produced a series of explosive shotsimages of a community living on the margins of society, facing a bleak future.
Jones spent three years documenting the lives of the residents of the hostel - known locally as ‘The Black House’.
He says: ? “They were the hardest people I’ve ever had to photograph - they trusted no one ...My camera in the house was very intrusive so I wasn’t always able to use it as it could haven provoked some situations to turn violent. The problem is that I am white and these people, with all their problems, had little to lose.
Sometimes when I go through the front door I could feel the pressure of the place.” The photographs are published in a book entitled ‘The Black House’, with text from prominent novelist and writer Mike Phillips.
The exhibition will run from Monday 1 October – Friday 26 October 2007 in the Eckersley and Lower Street galleries at London College of Communication. Colin Jones will be signing copies of the book at a private view on Private view and book signing Tuesday 9 October from 6.00-8.00pm. The event will be attended by the Mayor of Islington, Councillor Barbara Smith.
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