22-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
BMXs, boomboxes and black eyes: growing up on Peckham housing estates in the 80s
Taken when Russell Newell was aged between 12 and 20, many of these photographs have been unseen for the past 40 he is working with Autograph to share his work publicly for the first time, in Autograph's new online photographs: © Russell Newell
'Newell's work from this era isn't just an observation of his surroundings, it's a radical act of understanding his identity and the character of his community,' says Mark Sealy, executive director of Autograph ABP
Newell says: 'My grandmother and mother moved to the Redbridge Gardens estate, Peckham, in the early 60s when it was first built, and I was born in Peckham in 1965, where we lived until 1968. I returned permanently to London with my mother in 1976. Our first Peckham home was on the prewar Sumner estate. The estate was in a state of disrepair and the flats lacked central heating, which meant they were in low demand'
'I have been a book-lover since childhood, so when I got my camera I went to the library and found books about photography. In my early to mid-teens I spent a lot of time studying the lives and work of great photographers such as W Eugene Smith, Robert Frank and Ernest Cole. My personal practice is almost entirely self-taught'
'My mother enrolled me in a photography project that ran a magazine called Schooling & Culture, which helped me create and publish my first photo essay – about rastas in Peckham. That was when I learned how photography and writing could give me a voice'
'I like to carefully compose a frame with the expectation that something unexpected will occur. Whether that's the presence of a person, a change in the light, the weather, or some other event'
'The North Peckham estate provided lots of interesting visual opportunities: fleeting glimpses of movement through these brick and concrete frames at the intersections of stairwells and walkways'
'I was always fascinated by windows lit up at night – the arrangement of the estate meant that many dwellings faced each other, overlooked by walkways. I took comfort in the glow, and the knowledge of the lives being lived within'
'I was always interested in chiaroscuro and the interplay of light and dark, the play of shadows. In terms of framing I like asymmetry and negative space. The balance of opposites'
'After living in New Romney, Kent, for a few years, my family returned to live in Peckham when I was 11. It was the first time in my life I had friends from a variety of backgrounds. The area was an exciting place to explore'
On 11 April 1981, I inadvertently cycled into the middle of the Brixton riots with my brother on our way home one Saturday afternoon. That was the first time in my life that I witnessed police brutality and violent struggle. I also got caught up in the Peckham riots that same summer and was arrested and beaten quite badly by cops'
'I tended to move through Peckham's different constituencies with my camera. I was sociable and always keen to make new connections. Being the local photographer was my identity really – it's how everybody knew me'
'Each constituency is attempting to anchor to a fixed point and construct authentic meaning while simultaneously having to negotiate with another 'authentic' version of itself. There are so many opposing or contradictory forces and structures at work it feels impossible to say what the future actually holds for Peckham'
