Tom Hunter photo of Hackney in auction to raise funds for Shelter

An image by acclaimed photographer Tom Hunter depicting a housing estate which is due to be pulled down is on auction to raise money for homelessness charity Shelter.

Hunter chose the image of a young girl on the Woodberry Down estate for the Up My Street project, because it shows a housing estate in what he labels, “terminal decline.”

“This photo is a question mark on what happens to the next generation, who have no long term council tenancies, no affordable rents, house prices out of reach of normal working people,” said Hackney-based photographer Hunter, who is famous for his photographic sculpture, The Ghetto, about a London Fields squat.

“The Woodberry Down estate gave homes for heroes, ordinary working families where given good affordable housing, where they were tenants for life, to raise families in security and a community and now it’s being pulled down,” he added.

“Social housing has become a scapegoat for a lot of the country’s housing problems, and the future housing of the young girl in the picture is put into question with the end of affordable housing, especially in London’s inner city.”

The work is now on sale in an online auction whose proceeds benefit Shelter’s work supporting the homeless or those in desperate housing need.

Up My Street brings together 40 celebrated artists, photographers and designers, including Antony Gormley and Jake and Dinos Chapman, who each created an art work portraying a street they feel emotionally connected to.

For more information see http://england.shelter.org.uk/what_you_can_do/events_and_challenges/up_my_street

A free exhibition of all the works takes place at The Coningsby Gallery in Bloomsbury from Monday 5 to Thursday 8 March.