Photos by Micheal H. Cottman
By MICHAEL H. COTTMAN
LONDON- Wayne Campbell’ s engaging and evocative photo gallery in Brixton, South London’ s historic Afro-Caribbean community, is filled from floor to ceiling with small handwritten notes on square pieces of cardboard.
More than 2,000 heartfelt messages scribbled with colored markers are plastered throughout the gallery’ s exposed brick, emotional testimonies of appreciation from people who have come from across the world to visit Campbell’ s inspiring space in the Brixton Village marketplace to admire the powerful photographs that adorn his walls.
But for Campbell, affectionately known as“ Mr. Brixton,” the“ beautiful” Brixton he appreciates every day while walking past colorful fruit stands and cordial street vendors is not the Brixton usually described by the media.
Residents in Brixton have easy access to numerous media outlets such as the BBC, Campbell said, so the area is not considered a traditional“ news desert” – a community with significantly diminished access to local news and information. But Campbell said residents are frustrated – and some even angry – at the way the news organizations often portray his beloved community. Too often, Brixton is depicted as violent, dangerous and a place to be feared and avoided.
Campbell says although Brixton is not a textbook“ news desert,” it does have a longstanding news problem.
And he is not alone in this belief.
Inside Round Table Books, a small but popular bookstore in Brixton Village, co-owner Aimée Felone arranges an inventory of books about race and social justice and says mainstream media reports too much on violent crime in Brixton and pays little attention to the progress and positive developments in the community.
She, too, said Brixton isn’ t a“ news desert,” but says the news residents receive about Brixton is often racially insensitive and misleading.
“ I think sometimes there can be a focus on, like the crime rates in this area, or like there was
Photo taken by Wayne Campbell at a George Floyd Protest in 2020.
Wayne Campbell in his photo studio, Brixton.
Photos by McKenzie Curtis
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Wall of handwritten cardboard notes in Wayne Campbell’ s Brixton photo studio.