Occupied Spaces

Title: Occupied Spaces

Photographer(s): Ben Roberts

Writer(s): Naomi Colvin

Designer(s):

Publisher(s): Self-publishing, England, London

Year: 2012

Print run: 250

Language(s): English

Pages: 28

Size: 21 x 29 cm

Binding: Elastic cord loose leaf document binding

Edition: 2014, 100 copies

Print: Here press, London, England

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: England, 2011

ISBN: 978–0–9574724–3–3

On the 15th October 2011, protestors representing the global Occupy movement set up a semi-permanent camp outside St. Paul’s Cathedral in central London. The aim of the protest was to encourage discourse and raise awareness of social and economic inequalities.

On 25 October, several UK newspapers and media outlets ran stories claiming that ‘thermal imaging’ proved that only 10% of the 250 tents in St. Paul’s Square were being inhabited overnight. I was immediately sceptical of these claims.

This series of photographs catalogues some of the communal and private spaces that were installed in the St. Paul’s and Finsbury Square camps. The traces of activity and inhabitance serve as a clear document of the utilisation of a limited space by a large number of permanent and temporary residents.