JAMAIKA
Project Date: Nov 6, 2023
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JAMAIKA is a photography documentary work that tells the intimate story of an often racialised and marginalised community of around 700 people - Bairro da Jamaica, located in Seixal, Portugal – and their fight for dignified housing.
The community have lived in unfinished buildings, in extreme deprivation, since the late 70s, lacking basic living conditions.
While Bairro da Jamaica was demolished in 2023, its buildings destroyed and the families moved to better housing, ‘Jamaika’ as a community has prevailed. The sense of sharing, love and care will endure beyond its former physical location (Vale de Chícharos) and will continue to be a part of the lives of those who lived there.
JAMAIKA not only follows the struggle and the battles this neighbourhood had to overcome, but it also celebrates the love and happiness that flourished within this community with a history that goes back 40 years. It tells their story and documents their move to better housing.
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Aurora Coxi, 32 years old, helps her son Diego with his homework during the pandemic while William plays under the blanket. Bairro da Jamaica. Seixal, Portugal. March 2021. ©Jose Sarmento Matos
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Summary
An intimate documentary portrait that tells the story of Bairro da Jamaica, a community often racialised and marginalised in Portugal.
JAMAIKA is a photography documentary work that tells the story of an often racialised and marginalised community of around 700 people - Bairro da Jamaica, located in Seixal, Portugal – and their fight for dignified housing.
Project Text
JAMAIKA is a photography documentary project that tells intimately the story of an often racialised and marginalised community of around 700 people - Bairro da Jamaica, located in Seixal, Portugal – and their fight for dignified housing.
The community have lived in unfinished buildings, in extreme deprivation, since the late 70s, lacking basic living conditions.
While Bairro da Jamaica was demolished in 2023, its buildings destroyed and the families moved to better housing, ‘Jamaika’ as a community has prevailed. The sense of sharing, love and care will endure beyond its former physical location (Vale de Chícharos) and will continue to be a part of the lives of those who lived there.
JAMAIKA not only follows the struggle and the battles this neighbourhood had to overcome, but it also celebrates the love and happiness that flourished within this community with a history that goes back 40 years. It tells their story and documents their move to better housing.
This work tries to be a visual memory of Jamaica neighbourhood, while also representing many other racialised communities living in similar housing conditions around Lisbon, Portugal. These are communities and lives that are mostly forgotten by the Portuguese governments and by the local authorities and regularly segregated and stigmatised by society. In this case, the families from Bairro da Jamaica had often been marginalised by the local authorities, such as the local city council and the local police force.
Through my photography and my storytelling approach, I hope you will see a project that values and dignifies the lives of these families, individually, and of Bairro da Jamaica as whole.
