Bradley Grant

This project shows Zed Nelson’s take on how Hackney is currently home to two very different societies. One being the Older residents who have lived there their whole life’s. This society represents the hackney that everyone knew, what is the poor, crime ridden and run down borough. Well it was known as that until the second society moved in which is the urban hipsters who have now pushed hackney into the 21st century with their swanky bars and their eco-friendly coffee shops. This new society have now created a split due to their many dissimilarities. Such as wealth in the new society and poverty in the poor society.

For Zed Nelson he has discussed why he has created this project in this Youtube Video below.

In the video he explains how this project highlights the gentrification present within Hackney and that rather than the project being aimed at the people of that area, it’s more aimed at the gentrifiers. He seems to have a neutral opinion of the issue especially when he talks about the new cafe’s that are being open due to his understanding of why they have opened. He then doesn’t want to cause any negative affects with the new business due to the result of his film and this project. From this and what he further explains in the video he wants to create awareness of what is lost within the process of gentrification. This is most likely due to himself living in Hackney all his life so because of this he knows first hand what is lost due to this process. this could also be another benefactor for the reasoning of creating this project as he as a photographer wanted to his skills and creativity to help raise awareness of gentrification.

Some of the images from the project

The project consists of 30 photographs what has a blend of portraits and street photography but mainly documentary style photos. Zed Nelson has done a great job on creating a good variety of images that all have their purposes within the project. For instance he has included images that let the project breathe a bit by having images such as the second image that I’ve put on this blog post as this image could possibly resemble his own personal attachment of hackney by having the stadium in the background of an image that shows an area of Hackney in the foreground that hasn’t been affected by gentrification yet. Overall I find that he has shown a neutral view of the situation by showing both sides of the result of this process. He has well communicated the message that he wants to make of creating awareness of what is lost as a result of Gentrification.

Bibliography

Project info and images –

Nelson, Z. (n.d.). photographer. Zed Nelson – photographer. Retrieved February 6, 2024, from https://www.zednelson.com/?Hackney

Video

Nelson (2019) [online] Zed Nelson talks about The Street, his new film on Brexit and gentrification in East London Made Good. Available at: (85) Zed Nelson talks about The Street, his new film on Brexit and gentrification in East London – YouTube (Accessed 6th February 2024)