They Don't See Us ... but we do

They Don’t See Us … but we do is a portrait project created during my artist residency with The Palace of Dogs, showcased at Peckham Festival 2025. Inspired by the iconic studio works of Malick Sidibé and other West African photographers of the post-independence era, the project explores photography as both remembrance and self-determination.

Through a free portrait session open to the public, I invited sitters into a staged set reminiscent of traditional studio portraiture, reimagined with elements tied to Peckham’s identity. Each portrait was captured on Polaroid film and added to a growing photo album archive titled They Don’t See Us … but we do.

At its core, the project is about reclaiming the gaze. Street photography and portraiture are often tools of intrusion, but here they become acts of elevation — celebrating the very people and communities that gentrification too often threatens to erase.

This work continues to evolve: alongside the exhibited portraits, I am developing a travelling archive of printed photographs that will circulate through Peckham, keeping memory alive in the places where it was made.