BEN ROBERTS / OCCUPIED SPACES


















On the 15th October 2011, protestors representing the global Occupy movement set up a semi-permanent
camp
outside St. Paul's Cathedral in central London. The aim of the protests is to encourage discourse and raise awareness of social and economic inequalities.

On the 25th of October, several UK newspapers and media outlets ran stories claiming that 'thermal imaging' proved that only 10% of the 250 tents in St. Paul’s Square were being inhabited overnight; I was immediately sceptical of these claims.

This series of photographs catalogues some of the communal and private spaces that have been installed in the St. Pauls and Finsbury Square camps. The traces of activity and inhabitance serve as a document of the intense utilisation of a limited space by a large number of both permanent and temporary residents.

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For a more in depth analysis of these images, check out this BBC Viewfinder interview with Phil Coomes, and   this feature on the Wired Magazine photography blog   with Jakob Schiller.