“This caught my eye!” - North London Cares

Please note: this post is 82 months old and The Cares Family is no longer operational. This post is shared for information only

At North London Cares, we love taking photos and documenting what neighbours in north London get up to together. It provides a creative and visual way to tell people’s stories and celebrate the brilliant characters in our community.

George, 93, is a regular at social clubs and a keen photographer too. Volunteers love to learn about his career in photography and see his fantastic photos. With George as our inspiration we thought it would be great to get younger and older neighbours together to learn about photography, tell stories through photographs and help both age groups to gain new skills.

Last month neighbours Emma, Walter, Harry and Mica got together in the heart of Camden Town to be the start of something new – Photography Club.

The first club was a hoot! With help from Jon, a professional photographer, and support from the Mary Ward Centre, neighbours learnt about portraits as an art form and how to take the perfect shot. They paired up and used iPads to snap pictures of each other, playing around with different props and styles.

Charlotte and Anne had a laugh editing the photos they took; meanwhile newbie Eddie fancied himself as a photographer and got partner Doug to do the posing. It was Eddie’s first North London Cares social club and being that he has an artistic background after a career in set design, the Photography Club appealed to him:

"This caught my eye because it was creative".

By taking the photos the pairs had the opportunities to get to know one another and build relationships:

“You’ve got to trust the person taking the pictures!”, said Dina

And when the club came to an end friendships had most definitely been formed.

Photography club is back on this month, Thursday 22^nd March – if you fancying joining your neighbours then email Roxi ([email protected]) to sign up.

And if reading this has inspired you to share a skill with your older neighbours, we are looking for people to help lead our clubs later in the year. If you can help then email Rosie ([email protected]).