From August 3 until November 14, 2025, I exhibited my story about the community living and working along Lea Bridge Road. I wanted the community to see the pictures so I exhibited them outdoors, on the fence of the Lea Bridge Library. Living the Changes is a long-term documentary story that I worked on for over four years. It archives life as it is today in east London; a visual and diverse wealth of culture, social change, faith, work and leisure.

As a documentarian I wanted to photograph people who belong to this community, listen to their stories, ask them what they most like about the Lea Bridge Road and what changes they had noticed. I used vintage cameras, shooting black and white film. Then using video, I recorded the opinions of those photographed to capture their voice and thoughts in the hope that they will be archived for future generations.

The exhibition was made possible by the financial support of The Stow Brothers and endless energy and support of Councillor Shabana Dhedhi.

If you missed the exhibition you can see a selection of the exhibition panels by scrolling down. If you click on some of the pictures you can see a more indepth edit of the stories, some presented as videos. Enjoy.
A general view of the exhibition 'Living the Changes' on the fence of Lea Bridge Library. Thirty-one A1 sized panels with over 150 pictures. Click on the picture above to see a short video about the exhibition. If you click on the picture below, the lead panel for the whole exhibition, you will be able to see a selection of the environmental portraits, some of which were not included in the exhibition.

Below are the lead panels for the four in depth stories I worked on as part of the overall project; K&H Timber Supplier, The Brothers Project, The Potters House and Jamia Masjid Ghousia Mosque. If you click on the pictures, it will take you to the story. As this is very much an ongoing project I’ve added the portrait panel for BB café, a story I am still working on.
 
 
 
 

This last exhibition panel is a collection of pictures of people holding the prints I had given to them. If nothing else comes of this whole project at least almost everyone has a strong black and white portrait of themselves and I get to see their smiles as they hold it.

If you scroll down you will be see a few images of the work in progress as we put the exhibition together.

Verity and I arrived at 06.00am to put the exhibition panels on the fence of the Lea Bridge Library. Not only did we have the panels, ties and the design plan, we also bought along some secateurs to trim back the foliage along the fence. What we also needed but didn’t have was a brush for the hundreds of spiders we met. It took four hours to complete and we think it looks great.

Three days to go until we put the pictures up on the fence of the Lea Bridge Library for my exhibition ‘Living the Changes Lea Bridge Road’. We thought we’d do a quick dummy run with a blank A1 sized panel to make sure the concept works in practice and to sort the story running order to correspond with the spacing on the fence.
It might look like gibberish to most but to Verity and I this is a section of the all important running order of the exhibition panels. Basically the exhibition plan.
It's always a mixture of excitement and slight worry when the printed exhibition panels finally arrive. Excitement as it’s great to see the finished printed panels full size but with a tinge of worry as it’s only then you see the spelling mistake, the flat print, the QR codes don't work or some other glitch you hadn’t thought of until it’s too late. I needn't worry ,again Verity has delivered a sterling exhibition. They're perfect

Designer Verity Watkins burns the midnight oil as she works on the design for the poster of the exhibition 'Living The Changes Lea Bridge Road' July 15, 2025.

The Lea Bridge Library where my exhibition portraits and stories will be exhibited along the fence from August 3 2025 on 30 A1 sized panels.
Starting to plan out the exhibition with designer Verity Watkins for ‘Living the Changes’ a photographic documentary about the Lea Bridge Road June 9, 2025.

A Canon 7 rangefinder camera next to bagged up black and white negatives from the story ‘Living The Changes’ Lea Bridge Road as the images are edited before scanning.

Designer Verity Watkins works on initial page layout design for exhibition ‘Living The Changes’ Lea Bridge Road June 2, 2025.

Designer Verity works on the exhibition panels design on her iMac June 11, 2025.
 
 
 
 
 

All Rights Russell Boyce