Nevi Wesh

2024

This project is about a community of settled Gypsies living in an area disadvantaged by rural isolation and lack of opportunities, in the New Forest in the UK. While there is a lot of photography work on the few remaining travelling Gypsies, the fact is that 95% of Romani Gypsies are actually settled in the UK and do not travel at all. I wanted to address this fact.

These Gypsies face extreme, but generally unreported, prejudice as they seek to retain their own culture and heritage after their ancestors were forcibly settled during the course of the Twentieth Century, having previously been able to camp where they wished in the Forest and throughout the country. While some are happy to remain settled, some wish to take up the travellers’ life again.

I was lucky to have opportunities to build trust with the community, and then photograph with them, over two years, as a group and, eventually, individually, at their homes and in the forest where their recent ancestors would have camped.

The Romani name for the New Forest is Nevi Wesh.

Please read more about the project on the blog.