My Heart Is A Map of Streatham (2021)
I haven’t lived in the place I grew up - Streatham, in south London for nearly three decades. Yet weird corners of it frequently find their way into my dreams in a hazy fashion.
At some point I began to think about whether the places I was dreaming about still existed and made a conscious decision to revisit them with a camera.
Around the time this decision was made, I was missing the place dreadfully - mourning it I would say. This grief wasn’t merely a result of the 93km between my old place and my new place of Hastings, but because of a perception that the London I have lived and loved has changed so much.
In what is an upside-down version of my first "proper job” as a photographer for The South London Press newspaper, the record label GD4YA frequently send me to different parts of South London to photograph areas relevant to each of the artists they release. It’s a dream assignment. It has however, undoubtedly played a part in triggering both grief and nostalgia. In photographing Brixton Hill and Lambeth for GD4YA03 and GD4YA07, I was essentially transported to the periphery of my childhood home - areas that to me are familiar yet liminal; not quite home, but home enough.
Maybe this is why I felt compelled to cross the boundary into what’s left of my actual tangible “home,” and retrace the streets and places that were important to me growing up. I wanted to see if and how Streatham had changed, as people were saying it had, and what emotions or memories different parts of it would induce.
I named this project My Heart Is A Map of Streatham. Because it is. I see no difference between the arteries, coronary veins and tissue of the organ that keeps me going, and the roads, buildings and green spaces of Streatham that make up my make-up.
- Georgina.
You can read more about this project on my Substack.