An exhibition of hundreds of Londoners standing at their front doors during lockdown has come to Alexandra Palace this week.
Front Door Photo was a charity project started by North London portrait photographer, Jenny Smith, to raise money for victims of domestic abuse.
The portraits are on display for the public in the indoor beer garden of the Palace’s pub, The Phoenix Bar & Kitchen, from Friday 9 September – Thursday 15 September.
“One day during lockdown, domestic violence charity, Refuge, recorded a 700% increase in traffic to their website; an alarming statistic. Having had a friend who took her own life following years of domestic abuse, I decided to raise some money to help” said Jenny.
In return for a donation to Refuge, Jenny offered to take a socially distanced portrait of people standing at their front doors.
She set up a donation page on JustGiving in the hopes of raising £1000, but by the end of the first day she’d already reached that target and it soon became clear that the project was about to take off. In the end, Front Door Photo raised £21,284 and inspired many other photographers to follow suit in their own communities.
“I thought I’d photograph a few friends and it would all be over in a few days” said Jenny “but once word started to spread the donations began flooding in and what I thought would be a few days turned into two months photographing nearly 500 households”.
Jenny photographed a few famous faces for the project too including Radio 1 breakfast show DJ, Greg James and his author wife Bella Mackie, TV presenter and actress Nicola Thorp who lived on a barge at the time, actor Nitin Ganatra and former leader of the Labour party, Ed Miliband. Mayor of West Yorkshire Tracy Brabin and Enfield MP Bambos Charalambous also donated and had a Front Door Photo. All feature in the exhibition.
CEO of Alexandra Palace, Emma Dagnes said: “Jenny’s project is truly inspirational, raising funding and awareness for such an important cause. We are looking forward to welcoming her and our neighbours who posed for the portraits up to the Palace and celebrating the exhibition together.”
Ruth Davison, CEO of Refuge said: “Jenny’s creative Front Door Photo project helped raise awareness that for those living with an abuser, home is not a safe place. These vital funds enabled us to continue our work supporting survivors of domestic abuse during unprecedented times. Thank you to Jenny for this innovative project and to everyone that got involved and donated.”
The exhibition is free to enter and open to the public until Thursday 15 September in Alexandra Palace’s Phoenix Indoor Beer Garden, Palm Court side. Entrance is via the Phoenix Bar and Kitchen pub.
You can support Jenny’s fundraising campaign for Refuge here
To find out more about the project and Jenny’s work visit her website
