Meet The People Of Hackney

Photographer Christian Sinibaldi was fascinated with the village life and people he lived amongst in Hackney, he captured them in portraits that paint a vivid picture of modern Britain.

By Kieren Puffett
Published 15 Apr 2018, 12:46 BST

“The project got started because I had a bit of downtime,” confesses Italian-born, Christian Sinibaldi. “I just went out with my camera to take pictures of whatever fascinates me and literally the first picture I took was of the two twins, one holding a lollipop–that was literally 20 metres from my house.”

Sinibaldi continued travelling around his local area of Hackney, spotting individuals and telling them about his project. Once people understood what the project was about, they were often happy to participate.

“I always photographed people where I found them,” says Sinibaldi. “It’s quite impressive the variety of the people surrounding us, how beautiful and different human beings are and how they expressive themselves–from their clothing, to their beliefs, to their religion, to what they do.”

Photographer and Hackney resident, Christian Sinibaldi, photographed fellow residents where he found them. The project captured the rich diversity of people who lived in the area.
Photograph by Christian Sinibaldi

Sinibaldi is originally from Rome, Italy and arrived in London in 2003 where he was offered a room by chance. He had only been to UK’s capital once before, so had not really seen the east of the city, but became fascinated by the village life, the people, the multi-ethnicity and the diversity.

“It’s actually quite nice how friendly people are no matter what their background is. Everybody feels a need to belong to certain things but what I especially love about Hackney is a sense of a community. From my personal experience, I can tell definitely there is a sense of a community, quite strong sense of community, but as with any city also a sense of loneliness and individuals.”

Sinibaldi has worked on other local projects since taking these portraits and has gained an understanding of what is like to be part of a new community.

“We grow up in certain social structures so sometimes it’s difficult to reach out. In my job I have to reach out and it’s quite surprisingly interesting and amazing how kind the human spirit is and how easy it is to talk to people. My own advice would be to talk a bit more to each other.”

Sometimes the simplest advice is the best.

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