Island of Strangers - rough edit - Si Barber Photo Archive

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Island of Strangers - rough edit

Island of Strangers is a photographic document of the impact of the European Union's 2004 enlargement legislation on the peoples of the Fenlands of East Anglia.

The legislation created a new, deracinated workforce in the UK mainly from Eastern Europe. Essential to the economy yet existing below the public gaze, this demographic often lives in parallel rather than in conjunction with the indigenous population.

My photographs aim to capture the experiences of this community as it meets the culture and traditions of the settled population and they both navigate a rapidly changing economic landscape where globalisation means that workers are increasingly regarded as fungible, replaceable assets, who can be compelled to scurry around the world at the behest of corporations and governments.

Antek, Denisa and Vendula, seasonal workers from the Czech Republic picking stones and hoeing weeds in the brassica fields of Sout…
Amy Harrison, Flower Queen of 2012 shows off the Queens dress and talks to the finalists about the duties and responsibilities of…
Children passing by the Masjid Ghousia Mosque on the corner of English Street, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire
Siblings Iasmina, Horatiu and Luminata, factory workers from Romania, shopping after finishing work on Saturday afternoon in Wisbe…
Police and immigration enforcement officers interviewing a worker at a car wash in during a raid undertaken to rescue victims of m…
A mural of the Blessed Virgin cradling a bottle of beer on the rooftops of Boston, Lincolnshire. The image appeared overnight, sho…
Dr Victoria Bateman, Cambridge academic,economist & anti Brexit activist presenting her thesis called Brexit Leaves Britain Naked.…
A demonstration to trigger Article 50, which would initiate the process of Britain leaving the EU, Boston, Lincolnshire, 2019. T…
A Tullos threshing machine owned by farmer Jesse Watson, of Littleport, Cambridgeshire up for auction after his death. Watson…
Shippea Hill station in Cambridgeshire. The request-only stop was, until recently the least used station in Britain. In latter…
Zydrunas & Vilma, butchers from Lithuania receive their first consignment of slaughtered pigs at their newly opened shop in King's…
Ali Dent OBE, and assistant Fred of Dent's Butchers Hilgay, Norfolk. The shop has served the village since 1900. “I was born here…
Customers at The Bicafe cafe on Albion Street, King's Lynn, Norfolk watching the Portugal v Uruguay football. The cafe is one o…
Navenby annual carnival. Despite its size, the village boasts, a butcher, a baker, two supermarkets, a chemist, a florist, an anti…
Young men from Hungry fishing in the dock in Boston, Lincolnshire on Good Friday when it is tradition in their home country to ca…
LIttle Europe shop in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, one of many businesses serving the migrant community which closed during the exodus…
Romet and friends, newly arrived from Estonia, looking for accommodation and employment opportunities in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.
Trimming celery in a harvesting rig, near Ely, Cambridgeshire . The rig is a self-propelled two storey mobile platform that moves…
Palm Sunday service, St Michael's Church, Swaton, Lincolnshire, recalling Christ's entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. "…
Farm worker accommodation at an asparagus farm, Norfolk,UK.
Mummers recreating the legend of St George & the Dragon for school children on St George’s Day, Downham Market, Norfolk. The drago…