The Jaywick Youth

Visual Storytelling Programme

Facilitated by -

David J Shaw and Shannon Ghannam / Peter Marlow Foundation.

During summer 2026, local young people came together in Jaywick, Essex, for the Jaywick Youth Visual Storytelling Programme. Facilitated by photographer and journalist David J. Shaw and Shannon Ghannam, Director of Development and Programming at the Peter Marlow Foundation, the programme invited participants to co-create stories about their own experiences of the village. 

The seed for the programme grew from Shaw’s year and a half long documentation of life in Jaywick, and his motivation to look beyond the village’s infamous reputation and negative narratives shaped by its government-declared status as England’s most deprived place. The programme aimed to offer “a more personal, and kinder view” of the community, by giving local young people the opportunity to respond to these narratives themselves.

Through collaborative creative workshops and conversations, participants explored why there was such a big media interest in Jaywick and it’s deprivation, what the motivation behind these stories could be, and what Jaywick was actually like to experience. During the programme, we were lucky to invite a range of industry guests, including photographers Diana Patient, Jadine Wells and Timi Akindele-Ajani, and Observer Newspaper photo editor Cheryl Newman, who delivered workshops sharing skills, advice on project development and guidance on careers in the creative industries.

The project was presented in a newspaper which celebrated different aspects of Jaywick’s close-knit community. The newspaper was distributed locally, with a screening and exhibition event taking place at the Never Say Die pub where the community could come and see what we made. All the project participants presented their work, and then we celebrated with a karaoke party in the pub after.

The participating photographers:

Barnaby Chinnock

Millicent Glasgow 

Kian Mills

Tommy and Luke Martin

Sandra Crawford