I’ve also been working with photographer Jon Tonks on his exhibition Stories of Home, a series of new photographic portraits commissioned for BLAST! by Multistory.
The exhibition features many of the Central and Eastern European people that reside in Sandwell and takes place in a disused retail unit in West Bromwich town centre 24 May – 29 June 2019.
A portrait of the Central and Eastern European communities living in Sandwell, home to the biggest Polish population in the UK. The photographs were taken during a two year period against a backdrop of divisive geopolitical rhetoric following the 2016 EU referendum. Thanks to their generosity, the project also reveals much about the cultural identity and hopes and fears for the future of each subject. The series explores a question that reaches beyond borders: what binds a community to make a place home?
Artist Biography
Jon Tonks is a British photographer living in Bath, UK. His work focuses on telling stories about people’s lives shaped by history and geography. He has been shortlisted for the Taylor Wessing National Portrait Prize three times, twice for the Terry O’Neill award and, in 2014, Tonks was presented with the Vic Odden Award by the Royal Photographic Society for his first book Empire – a journey across the South Atlantic exploring life on four remote British Overseas Territories.
Anneka French 