Colin O'Brien: Travellers' Children

With ‘My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding’, the Dale Farm eviction and the Stoke Newington Common fracas, travelers seem to be a relatively recent hot topic of discussion.  However, Colin O’Brien jumped on the gypsy wagon many years ago.  His new exhibition at the Genesis Cinema, ‘Travelers’ Children’ focuses on the children of an Irish traveling community 25 years ago, who settled in East London at a time when Hackney’s Victorian houses were being torn to the ground and its streets were poverty stricken and rubbish laden.  If the current spotlight around traveling communities has taught us anything about their lives, it is the insularity of their tight-knit communities and their attitudes towards outsiders.  Through gaining their trust and confidence, Colin O’Brien’s photographs give us unprecedented access to witness the highs and lows of traveling groups and their children against the backdrop of 80s Hackney.  The exhibition is on for the whole of October and is free - wahooo!