A recent commission which has gone to press for a magazine that deals with social housing issues. The piece centered around the woman who runs a community centre on the Stockwell Park estate which has more than it's fair share of problems with crime, drug dealing and gang violence.
While on the shoot it was obvious that she had a massive task ahead of her but her devotion to making a difference to those who lived on the estate (of which she was one herself) was amazing.
Six days after the shoot the story gained a lot more momentum with the sad events that resulted in two people, one of them a five year old girl, being shot after two youths were chased into a local shop and fired upon. The bullets missed their intended targets and resulted in two innocent people being gravely wounded.
I wondered if this story had some sort of connection to the estate I had photographed a few days previously and these suspicions were confirmed after I had a call from the journalist who was present on the shoot.
Yes one of the youths being chased was indeed from the estate and also a regular at the community centre. Furthermore it was the lady who runs the community centre who convinced him to cooperate with the police in their enquiries to find the gunmen - This woman should be working in government.
More images from the shoot can be seen below. The first image shows the door at the entrance to the centre and yes, that's a bullet hole in it...
