Shelter Scotland is searching for the children and their families featured in iconic photographs of Scotland’s tenement slums
A search has begun to find the children and their families featured in iconic photographs of Scotland’s tenement slums.
The collection of photographs, taken only 45 years ago by Nick Hedges for housing and homelessness charity Shelter, depict the lives of families living in cold, damp and often dangerous conditions.
The search comes after the documentary photographer agreed to lift a 45 year restriction on the use of the photographs in Scotland. Hedges had originally limited their use – as many feature young children and their families – in order to protect the subjects.
He, with the help of Shelter Scotland who are coordinating the search, now wants to meet with the subjects he met all those years ago to hear their stories, and revisit the areas they once called home.
It is thought many of those featured in the original photographs will now be aged between 50 and 70.
A selection of over 1,000 photographs are currently on display until 30 October in a free open air exhibition on St Andrew Square in Edinburgh and you can also view them on the Shelter Scotland website at shelterscotland.org/lifeworthliving.
Anyone who recognises themself, or someone else is asked to contact [email protected].
Graeme Brown, director of Shelter Scotland, said: “We want to hear the stories behind these iconic images, and in particularly what happened after they were taken.
“These photographs are a sobering piece of history not only for Shelter Scotland, but the nation as a whole and it’s important to preserve the stories behind them.
"They show us how far we have come in providing safe, secure and affordable housing to the people of Scotland, but also that we must do more for the tens of thousands of families and individuals still desperate for a home to call their own.
“Over 45 years after these pictures were taken, it is a mark of shame that almost 5,000 children in Scotland will wake up tomorrow homeless.”
Hedges, now in his 70s, was commissioned by Shelter in 1968. He spent three years visiting some of Scotland’s poorest and most deprived areas, documenting housing conditions and quashing the myth that only people on the streets are homeless.
One iconic image, of the Make Life Worth living collection, shot in the Gorbals in Glasgow shows a young mother pushing her baby, surrounded by rubble. According to the photographer he met the smiling teenager just as she was about to enter a derelict tenement, ready to carry the buggy up three flights of stairs to get to her flat.
He recalls how she told him that just a few days before, she had been in bed with her husband and they had both woken up to loud noises. It was a wrecking ball, demolishing the tenement block. Her husband ran out screaming for the demolition to stop. The conditions were so bad the demolition men hadn’t thought that people could still be living there, and didn’t think to check.
Nick Hedges said: "It would be wonderful to meet the children I photographed all those years ago and to hear their stories. I often wonder what happened to them, if they went on to lead happy and healthy lives.
"When I was commissioned by Shelter to take these photographs, I never imagined that decades later they would still have such impact - none more so than on me personally. The poverty and terrible conditions I witnessed shocked me to the core.
“My hope is that all these years later, by reconnecting with some of those I photographed, I am able to hear good news of what happened to the families.”
