On Thursday the 2nd of March Award winning social documentary photography Craige Easton visited the University of Huddersfield to do a talk on his practice and new photobook for his series Thatcher's Children. Thatcher's Children is a long-term project, running from 1992 to 2020, which explores the intergenerational cycle of poverty through following three generations of a single family over the decades. Easton first met the Blackpool family when working with a newspaper for a piece about poverty, spending a total of four days with the family and their six children as they lived in a hostel.
Easton reconnected with the family in 2016, getting to know the lives of the now six adults. During this time Easton photographed one of the six siblings called Katrina at her wedding in 2018, this is the only wedding Easton has ever photographed. In the period from 2016 to 2020 where he photographed the family on and off, Easton witnessed the siblings, and their kids experience financial hardships the same way they did as children back in 1992. Upon seeing this multi-generational poverty Easton arrived at the conclusion that this cycle the family has experienced is affected by and perpetuated by government policy.
Thatcher’s Children is available to view in multiple ways, the entire photo collection can be accessed online for free creating a financially accessible option. It is also available in copies of The Guardian for a small price, exhibited in museums such as the Open Eye in Liverpool, and in photo-book form for which there are two versions with different price points.
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