November 2019 - July 2020

Chris Steele-Perkins: The New Londoners

At the age of two or three, a young boy arrived from Burma at his aunt’s home in Somerset.  His aunt drew his attention to a small teddy bear sitting on a stool and he ran across and held the bear tightly; this was Chris Steele-Perkins’ first memory of England. 

Inspired his own journey, Steele-Perkins has been photographing families living in London who come from every country in the world.  These are families that have relocated to London to study or work, flee conflict, or have fallen in love and started families.  Steele-Perkins chose to photograph the families in their own homes to portray a sense of settlement.  The New Londoners features photographic portraits of 164 families from 187 countries and is a celebration of diversity, history and family. 

This selection of twenty photographs has been acquired for the Imperial Health Charity Art Collection and toured Hammersmith, St Mary’s and Charing Cross hospitals. They have since found a permanent home outside the ENT department at Charing Cross.

For more information about Chris and the project, please visit http://www.chrissteeleperkins.com/portfolio/portraits/new-british/

Photograph © 2014 Chris Steele-Perkins