The Boarding House, a photo story by Peter Fryer and David Cambell

Christian — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 21:51:17 +0000

Brilliant piece this, created by photographer Peter Fryer and David Cambell, Professor of Cultural and Political Geography at the University of Durham this story explores the lives of the Yemeni community in South Shields, one of the most important centres of Yemeni life in Britain. Interestingly South Shields was the location of a fascinating trade dispute that turned into what would later be called the ‘Arab Riots’ that took place in the town in 1919 and 1930 respectively. There has been a Yemeni community in South Shields since 1890 but poor treatment of the community, exploitation in the workplace – especially at the docks (Yemeni men where almost always seafarers) and aggressive policing led to the riots and the subsequent deportation of some Yemeni men, you can read more about the riots at this link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/family-and-community/south-shields-yemeni-riots.shtml

A visitor from Sana’a, Yemen

Christian — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 22:13:40 +0000

Last week the Yemeni community in Liverpool had an important visitor from Yemen’s government offering advice on amongst other things the visa situation for British Yemeni’s visiting Yemen, unlike in the past visitors to Yemen from the UK now require a visa and this has proven to be a expensive and bureaucratic exercise especially for those with large families planning to visit their families during the British summertime. Below are several photographs of the heated discussion.

Yemen’s first professional woman photographer

Christian — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 22:55:02 +0000

Yemeni Unification day, Birmingham 2010

Christian — Sun, 30 May 2010 22:50:26 +0000

I was invited to travel from Liverpool with representatives from the the Merseyside Yemeni Community Association (MYCA) to Dudley in Birmingham to take part in an event celebrating the unification of Yemen. It was great to be asked along and the welcome was extremely warm. The Birmingham trip provided a good opportunity for me to meet members of the Yemeni community and to explain what our project aims areo and how we can connect with other Yemeni groups around Britain.
‘The Liverpool Yemeni Photographic Studio’ is now underway, the project will start in mid June 2010 and run for two and a half months, throughout the summer. The results will be exhibited in the autumn, however the project is based on the idea that ‘process’ is as crucial if not more crucial than ‘outcome’ so the aim is then to share the results and work from the project step by step on this blog. More information on the role of the blog and the nature of the project can be found opposite in the ‘About’ link.

Christian