#5 CAMERA Book Review: Polly Braden & David Campany - Adventures in the Lea Valley

Adventures in the Lea Valley by Polly Braden and David Campany
Hoxton Mini Press
112pp hardcover, quarter-bound, gold foiled, 145 x 205mm

Polly Braden and David Campany's Adventures in the Lea Valley documents the River Lea corridor and the surrounding landscape of East London over a period of more than ten years. The project began in 2004, before London secured the 2012 Olympic Games, when large areas of the Lower Lea Valley retained a distinctive mixture of waterways, marshland, industry, recreation and neglected urban spaces. Working together with a single camera, Braden and Campany photographed the area as it underwent one of the most significant programmes of redevelopment in modern London, recording both the landscape that existed before the Olympics and the transformation that followed. Published by Hoxton Mini Press in 2016 as part of the East London Photo Stories series, the book presents a sustained record of a place shaped by environmental, social and economic change.

The photographs combine documentary observation with moments of subtle staging, moving between environmental portraits, industrial sites, waterways, footpaths, housing estates and areas of open land. Rather than producing a comprehensive survey of the Lea Valley, the project explores the unexpected relationships between people and place, documenting a landscape where remnants of industry, nature reserves, leisure facilities and new urban development exist alongside one another. The sequencing reflects years of repeated visits, allowing recurring locations and visual motifs to establish connections across the work while emphasising the changing character of the valley.

Adventures in the Lea Valley demonstrates a collaborative approach to documentary photography in which authorship is shared between photographer and writer, with both contributing to the visual and conceptual development of the project. The work reflects an interest in how photography can record gradual urban transformation over time, while also acknowledging the role of editing and sequencing in constructing a photographic narrative. By documenting the Lea Valley before, during and after its redevelopment, Braden and Campany produced an important visual record of a landscape that has largely disappeared.

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