“Growing up in South East London I was always exposed to a lot of diversity,” says 33-year-old photographer Nico Froehlich. “My mother would make a real effort to build relationships with people from all kinds of cultural backgrounds, and this had a lasting impact on me, but it was something I didn’t fully realize or appreciate until I got older. As a child of immigrants, I have vivid memories of being embarrassed by how my mother would decorate our home and how she dressed. Everything she did was incredibly unique, and as a youngster who wanted to fit in, it did not bode well with me. As an adult and as a photographer, however, I am constantly seeking out everything that reminds me of my childhood—everything I once tried to obscure.”
Froehlich is describing the experiences which ultimately led him to his latest photo project, South of the River—an ongoing visual love letter to the streets he still calls home to this day. Full of richly layered and vividly-hued portraits of people from his community, the images pulse with a warm and authentic energy. Bathed in natural light, they depict a constellation of quietly illuminating and serendipitous moments.
“South of the River began in 2020, at the very beginning of the first national Covid-19 lockdown in the UK,” Froehlich explains. Describing the project as “part social realism and part biographical,” he says that it was a way for him to explore the terms and textures of his own identity and values, but also to provide a local’s perspective on an area in such constant flux too. “South East London is home to some of the most ethnically and culturally diverse communities in Britain,” he says. But as gentrification continues to transform the area, things are changing and his project has become an urgent one. “It is now more important than ever to recognize the beauty of variety and perseverance of a declining working-class community,” says Froehlich.
From shopkeepers, schoolchildren and friends to the photographer’s own mother in her kitchen, the people in Froehlich’s pictures are a mixture of people he knows well, and strangers he had chance encounters with. “Anyone and everyone that has an intimate connection with South East London,” he says. Regardless of whether he knows them or not, everyone is treated with the same respect and sincerity. “When approaching people, I explain what I am working on and treat the encounter as a collaboration. For the most part, people are flattered and happy to take part,” he says warmly.
Looking back, Froehlich says he first wanted to be a photographer because it offered him an indispensable tool to document the things around him. “I fell in love with the process of storytelling via photography and the idea of immortalizing all the things I care about,” he says. And now, working predominantly with portraiture, that impulse has only intensified the personal aspect in what he looks for even more.
“For me, a powerful portrait is an image that truthfully conveys the connection between the photographer and sitter, and digs deeper by providing a sense of values and desires. When I look at photographic work, I want to get to know the photographer and what they care about.” In the end, the portraits he most wants to present are ones through which something is revealed to the viewer—not only about the sitter, but also about the person behind the camera too.
Editor’s note: This work was awarded the top prize for series in the LensCulture Portrait Awards 2023. Discover lots more remarkable portraiture when you explore all of the winners and finalists of this year’s photography awards.
