ORGANISED YOUTH

We are a team of young photographers, film makers and oral historians from Photofusion in Brixton. We work on high-quality creative projects and we're always looking for new collaborators.

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This is the production of a recent partnership project between Photofusion, Organised Youth, Princes Trust and no.w.here lab. 

The concept, script, camera work and post-production was led by young people from Princes Trust. 

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Shots from the I Am Your Neighbour pop-up street studio event we ran in partnership with our soon-to-be-neighours Ovalhouse Theatre. 

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Day Two

Lizzy gave us a list and two cameras and told us to take pictures of what was on the list, such as a street name, Graffiti, a portrait of a stranger and words of remembrance.  Me and Georgia went around Brixton found really cool stuff like the David bowie painting and the skate park, we found a lot of graffiti in the skate park and ‘word of remembrance’ that was the easiest on the list. Lizzy gave us the whole day too this but Georgia and I only took two hours,  I personally find it really easy and fun but it was very awkward when we had to ask a stranger for their portrait because we got turned down a couple of times

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Day One

First day of work experience Georgia and I had to fix the library, we had to put the books in order by authors last name which was very tricky because a lot of the books hardly had the author last name on it, so we put aside all the books that had no authors name or if it was in a different language for Lucy to help us sort it out later on.  We also done some twitter stuff for the film festival we tweeted some film companies and photography companies. 

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Taking over Organised Youth

Georgia and I are taking over organised youth for two whole week . we are here on work experience for two weeks, Georgia is seventeen and goes to Harris girls East Dulwich and I’m fifthteen and I go to Platanos collage. Georgia and I both love photography and hope to carry it on in the future. One of the reasons we both love photography is that with a picture there is always a story behind it which makes it interesting to try figure out what the story is behind it.   

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Reflections on Work Experience

My highlight from doing work experience with Lizzy was probably going on a film making workshop where I helped film a rap video. I learnt how to use new equipment and it was a fun learning experience.  I also enjoyed learning what its like in a working environment. My low point would definitely be sorting through library books, putting them in alphabetical order as it was very boring and time consuming. 

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Carmen McCulloch's work experience at Photofusion

My name is Carmen McCulloch and I study Media at Brit school. I decided to do my work experience at Photofusion because I am interested in photography and wanted to develop my skills. I also wanted to gain an understanding of what it’s like to work in a media workplace.

On my first day, I was given a tour of the building and shown interesting places such as the dark room and the studio. I was then given the task of photographing Brixton market with a list of twenty things I had to find and take pictures of, for example “Something that makes you smile” and “a stranger”. I was slightly worried about this task as I though some people might think I was weird or become angry if I took their picture.

Carmen McCulloch – “something that makes you smile”

After my lunch break, I spent the afternoon creating teaching resources. This meant that I was finding images of women that represented themselves in different ways through their poses and clothing for a young male offenders project.

Teaching resource making. 

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Check out how some members of Organised Youth celebrated International Women's Day. 

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Technicalities - by Nathaniel Bagot-Sealey

On Saturday 14th December we made a short film about the memories that people had in Brixton. We explained to people passing by that their “memories can be anything, and there is no memory too big or too small.”

I filmed with two DSLR cameras, the Canon 5d mark II (on a tripod) and the 650d which was handheld. The 5d had a 85mm prime lens (that was used to get tight framing on the subjects shoulders) and the 650d had a 35mm lens that enabled me to capture the subjects in the context of the market. The biggest technical challenge was monitoring both cameras simultaneously while also attempting to marshal people away from walking into the shot. 

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My favourite interview from our series - by Amira Hassan

My favourite  interview was a guy called Bruno, I really liked his interview because you can see that his interview was real and  it was coming from the heart  and it was quite funny. The interview was in brixton village, the vibe was amazing, people having breakfast, shop keepers opening up and people going food shopping. Bruno looked very approachable, so I went up to him and nicely asked him if we can interview him about his brixton memory and he was up for it, but he did say his story was ‘dark and deep’ and I said, “ its cool, it can be any memory good or bad” and he was up for it.

Bruno’s story was different to the others we interviewed because everyone we interviewed their stories were happy and good memories, his story  was a bad memory about seeing someone get run over. One of the stories he told us was about his friend getting mugged and how him and his friend wanted justice, so they went to go look for the guy that mugged Bruno’s friend. When they found him Bruno was shocked because the guy was big and he was well known, so Bruno slapped the guys head and ran off, and the thug  told some boys to go chase him but he got away. One of the reasons I like this story is because , even if a memory is bad you can look back at it and laugh about it which makes it a good memory.

And after all that has happened Bruno still liked coming to Brixton.

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Some good, some bad - by Chantelle Clarke-Medford

My Memory

Negative 

My memorable memory of Brixton is of the police.

At the end of the day I know they are here to help us but my views on SOME of them are not good and this is based on my own experiences.

I've lived in Brixton all my life and when ever I need help, someone I know need help or someone in Brixton need help we get a different responds from them where as if someone from maybe Croydon needed help they would be there in a rush or give them the help they need.

At a young age I witness the police beat up my cousin because they thought he was someone else, and what can he do about it? Nothing I also witness my neighbour getting stabbed and the police taking very long to get to the crime seen and not taking it serious as they should be, and what can they do about it? Nothing.

With me know… my iphone got stolen so that means that I'm the victim but I was getting treated like I did the crime, asking me question that has nothing to do with my phone getting stolen.

Positive 

But on the whole Brixton isn’t all bad

Brixton is my hometown and I do love it. It's all I know. I've walked the streets and seen so much. 

Brixton has come a long way nowadays people love coming here to do number of things.

You can now walk on road and people that you don’t know will say hello to you, which is a nice vibe.

I've lived in Myattfield in Brixon all my life and I'm sad that they are knocking it down because I've lived there all my life.

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WE'RE BACK! - by Patrick Ballesteros

Organised Youth are back - and this time bringing the stories from the street! Being a Brixton based group, Organised Youth wanted to capture stories from different people from all walks of life from the area. #StreetStories give a snapshot of the diverse and the wonderful buzz which make Brixton.

Having done an interview project with ex Black Power Movement members, Organised Youth have now moved to the stories of the ordinary person. 

Our photographers, filmmakers, oral historians and curators have assembled once more to present a project, which preserves a snapshot of this ever-changing culture.

Setting up camp outside our studio, we asked people to tell us what Brixton meant to them and if they had any specific Brixton memories. From the reserved to the chatty, the Brixton people shared stories and feelings of their community.

Ready with a simple chair, a microphone, 2 cameras, the flair of OrganisedYouth, and 4 hours, we managed to capture bits and pieces of the buzz. And now piecing the puzzle together Organised Youth is preparing to show the world the Stories from the Street and the stories that make Brixton great.