Plymouth photographic census captures faces of Stoke Village

A photographic census is capturing the faces and stories of people who live in part of a Devon city.

Photographer Josh Greet is working on the census of Stoke Village, in Plymouth, which is a part of a wider project, Blockhouse Folk: Past, Present and Future, to "uncover and celebrate social and natural heritage".

It was awarded £97,340 by the National Lottery Heritage Fund last year.

Organisers said an exhibition would be held in Stoke Village in September.

Mr Greet, who was born and raised in Plymouth, said he wanted to try to "create a narrative" about what was happening in Stoke in 2024 with his photos.

He said: "One thing that we really want to consider is how people will look at this in 10, 20, 100 years' time.

"It's gathering these stories, and what's interesting is, even if you look back 10 or 20 years ago, people's opinions and thoughts are very different to what they are now."

In his career so far, Mr Greet has photographed football stars like Ian Wright and English Lioness Millie Bright for brands like Adidas, Arsenal, Sky Sports and H&M, but now he is turning his talents to his neighbours in Stoke Village.

Mr Greet added: "Quite often now, photographs are quite easily discarded, because of taking them on phones and putting them on the internet, and them getting lost, or not properly considered, because they're almost like a throwaway thing.

"So, I wanted to create a documentation of who lived in the area in 2024 - so I started thinking about it being a census, so a true representation of who lives here and who works here throughout 2024."

Rachel Dobbs, who lives in Stoke and works as a creative community builder at the Village Hub, has been working on the photographic census project.

She said: "One of the things we're really interested in is bringing that sense of pride out, to show other people, so feeling like 'yeah, I live here, this is a really important place to me, and maybe I've got to know some of my neighbours, maybe I've got to know other people in the place a bit better'."

Ms Dobbs said the aim of the project was bringing people together.

"With all the parts of the Blockhouse Folk project, we're really interested in bringing people together and celebrating things about our neighbourhoods here in Stoke, and Ford and Morice Town, which are different to other places."

As well as the photography census, The Village Hub is running a series of history events to connect local communities to their surroundings.

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