Freya Najade
Shortlisted Portrait of Britain Award

Fahma and her friends were having a picnic in a park in Haggerston to celebrate Eid. She kindly allowed Freya to photograph her in the beautiful evening sun and told me that she was originally from East Africa.This image is from her ongoing series 'Hackney Colours' which is a lyrical exploration of the artist’s neighbourhood to capture its essence and to celebrate difference and the people of this borough. It depicts mundane moments of daily life around her fleeting encounters and Hackney’s ever-changing landscape attempting preserve a moment in time as gentrification steadily sanitises the eccentricity and rawness that once defined this area of London.