The symbolic bonfire of the 33rd day of the Omer.
Members of the Charedi community of Stamford Hill originate from a worldwide diaspora.
There are people who have migrated here from places such as Brooklyn, Manchester, Israel, North Africa and Eastern Europe.
As one of my photography projects I decided to take photographs of influential Polish people in Coventry. Polish society is very religious so an obvious choice was the priest in the local Polish church. After taking his portrait he gave me the keys to the church. I found a stand with old songbooks and picked a random one, opened it and found a commemorative card from Christmas in 1959. That is when I realised the emigration wave from 2006 is not the only one. Many Polish people came to England after the Second World War in 1945 to find a new, safe home. Since then I met a lot of those incredible people and I’ve heard their amazing but mostly very sad stories. Over half a century old piece of paper has so many different meanings – for me it’s a reminder, for someone else it might be a memory of a coveted calm Christmas.
Many Poles that settled in England after the war were soldiers and pilots that fought for the United Kingdom so it is very unfair when these old immigrants have to suffer because of new immigrants causing trouble today.
Yaya is a Sudanese refugee and British Red Cross volunteer. My work focuses heavily on refugees and asylum seekers, an often overlooked or misunderstood form of immigration into the UK. I spend a lot of time volunteering my time and skills with local organisations and charities in the Leeds and Bradford area, getting to know people, hearing their stories and learning about the asylum system. I work closely with the British Red Cross Refugee Services team, and have recently started to teach asylum seekers a basic photography class.
I feel this image says a lot about Yaya’s character and the way he wants to be seen by the world. He is powerful, he is confident, he has been through so much in his life so far, yet he remains positive and wants to be seen and heard by the UK population.
I like this picture as it asks as many questions as it answers, and suggests the way in which second and third generations of migrant communities are creating new identities and navigating new ways of living in Britain, as well as having to overcome significant
obstacles.
