Chapter 4 -Amber Meadow Well, A Community Portrait Project

Amber Meadow Well 2021 Meadow Well Connected

Maria Maza

Meadow Well Connected

T

here are two big community centres in Meadow Well, The Cedarwood Trust and Meadow Well Connected—both a vital part of life and support to the area’s residents. We were honoured to be welcomed by staff and volunteers at both organisations, who supported us and championed us in many ways that made the project possible.

Among the many services that these community centres provide to residents of the area is after-school childcare. I was privileged to work with Meadow Well Connected Kids’ Club for a few weeks in the spring.

I brought small digital cameras for the children who were interested in photography, and we spent a few sessions photographing our surroundings and each other.

We talked about composition and content, and about using photography to express themselves and capture what is important to them. One of the children, Charlotte, kept using her camera and later on that summer won first prize in her age category in a photography competition organised by Meadow Well Connected. I was so proud!

Pop-up portrait studio We thought it would be a fun idea to offer free portraits to Meadow Well residents. This was partly inspired by Steve Conlan, the photographer who documented the community in the late 1980s to early 1990s, and then remained in the area as a youth worker. Between 2001 and 2002 he helped set up a free photographic studio in Meadow Well for young people to operate, and published a wonderful compilation of the portraits they produced.

Staff and Volunteers

Millie

Traci

Val

Andy

Tom

Jackie, Maggie, Una, Ian — The Bay Foodbank

Megan

Leah

Ian

Next chapter: Waterville Primary School All photos ©Maria Maza 2021

Mural artwork by Durham Spray Paints