Visibilising gentrification-induced displacement: a visual essay on the role of a socially and politically engaged photographic practice in housing activism

Abstract

This visual essay has two aims. On the one hand, it is intended as a visual exploration of gentrification-induced displacement. It focuses on photographic material generated for Deptford is Changing, a research project which exposed and politicised the emotional upheaval caused by contemporary state-led gentrification in Deptford, south-east London. On the other hand, the essay presents socially and politically engaged photography as a crucial part of housing activism. Working in dialogue with housing campaigners for a shared political goal, I photographed radical interventions taking art into the streets to enact people’s emotional responses to gentrification-induced displacement. The images thus bear the traces of collective affect. I also photographed residents in their homes, with the aim of visibilising their affective connection to place and thereby evoking the emotional upheaval displacement causes. Publishing these images together with texts, making visible and audible gentrification narratives representative of residents’ struggles, exposed and politicised the shared experience of displacement, putting pressure on the council and developer to implement change. This essay argues that a socially and politically engaged image-making practice generates alternative histories, which can disrupt dominant narratives and contribute to valuable change.