For 3.9 million children across the UK, severe poverty is a fact of life. During a brief assignment sponsored by the charity Save the Children I became aware of the need to understand the intergenerational cycle of poverty in the developed world.
In 2010 I began working with the Jones family - two parents and seven children- in order to mutually create a body of work, which speaks about the experience of deprivation within the context of a wealthy country.
The Jones family lives in a three-bedroom council house in the industrial city of Wolverhampton, UK. This is the first house that the family has lived in for three generations; the mother and father were brought up in caravans, as were their parents. The house is precious to the family and holds many memories for them, to the point that despite its extremely limited size they refuse to move into larger council accommodation.
The photographs seek to transcend the surface impression of bare floorboards and peeling wallpaper in order to communicate this family’s unique culture and each individual character, their genuine love and compassion towards each other and playful imagination.