ROB WALKER PHOTOGRAPHS

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White outThrough the Open DooriTunes Festival 2010Forest

The snowy suburbs of Saint Albans

For one long week snow brought chaos

to the nation. For me it was the peace

and serenity that it brought that helped

make taking photos after not using a

camera for 3 months since graduating.

White Out

In the peak of a blizzard I decided to go

photograph the silent chaos rampaging

outside. What resulted is a series of

photos which range from full of detail to

very obscure images.

01

Belgravia Squaters ‘Through the Open Door’ follows a

group of London based squatters

known to the media as the Belgravia

Squatters. I followed the group for

nearly three months building up

relationships and with them to allow

me in and photograph them. With the

help of documentary film maker Mark

Guard I have had the chance to follow

them in several houses including

living six doors down from Baroness

Thatcher. Several of the group weren’t

happy with the idea of photos, for

privacy reasons but others were happy

to sit in for photos.

Through the Open Door

The Idea of this project comes from

my third year university project,

Multiple Roles. I wanted to look a

group of people seen as outcast but

who were trying to break this “role” in

society. I decided to hunt down some

squatters to photograph however I

did not expect to have such a great

group to follow. My intention was to

photograph squatters to break the

negative stereotypes that come with

the name Squatter, and this is exactly

what this group do, they squatted for

two reasons. One was too live and

sleep, the second was the bring to the

attention of the public these giant

houses empty in central London.

The Thatcher House was the first

squat the came to my attention in the

media and the reason why I chose to

photograph them in the first place.

With the newspapers giving the basic

road and house information I decided

to just stride up to the house, camera

in hand and ask I could document

them and surprisingly enough after a

cautious start the agreed and I started

shooting the next day.

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Foals & 2 Door Cinema Club

iTunes Festival 2010

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Into the trees

Forest

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