Us And Them


'Us And Them' is a collaboration with disabled artists from Freewheelers Theatre and Media Company, Emma Brown and King's College London.

The project was shortlisted for the British Journal of Photography's 

The Portrait of Humanity Vol. 6

The Freewheelers have co-created portraits exploring visual representations of physical disability in Surrey, past and present,  following audio recorded discussions about pose, costume, gesture and identity. The portraits have been created using a traditional Victorian ‘tintype’ technique, which creates a photographic image on a thin sheet of coated glass or metal (glass plates).

The Us and Them artwork has been inspired by reviewing nineteenth-century archive photographs of patients taken on admission to the ‘Epsom Cluster’ of psychiatric hospitals. The hospitals also housed people with learning disabilities, epilepsy and Down’s Syndrome, which were classified in the same way as mental illness at that time.

The new portraits are provocatively paired with the original Victorian photographs, to provoke public conversations about discrimination and how disability is understood, especially through visual representations. This striking new collection of images and oral histories highlights the diversity of disabled artists, celebrates commonality, and unsettles the differences between ‘Us and Them’.

Us and Them has been supported by Surrey History Centre and with funding from King’s College London.  

'Us and Them' was exhibited at the Horton Epsom between 1st and 14th December 2023 and will be travelling to the Science Gallery London in 2025.

Case study about the project published by King's College London

 

 
Jamie from Freewheelers chose to be paired with Walter Cartright, a railway porter who died after 9 months in the asylum.
 © Emma Brown Photography


Flossie, Jamie's canine partner, © Emma Brown Photography


Alice from Freewheelers chose to be paired with Rose Harris
© Emma Brown Photography

 

Pete from Freewheelers chose to be paired with workhouse survivor Frederick Tarrant
 © Emma Brown Photography

 

Sonas from Freehweelers choose to be paired with the music hall performer, Byron Pedley, a mere one hatted man pictured below (top row, second from the left).
© Emma Brown Photography