First to enter is Jeanette. Attired in an elegant blouse, she is ready for her close-up. Her sweet smile and murmur of ‘good morning’ gets immediate replies from the rest of us in the studio. Jeanette’s blue eyes will not get completely accustomed to the dim lighting, they are not as sharp as they used to be. Bradley Lincoln, her son, standing a few inches taller is leading her from behind and with a tender hand on her waist, he guides her to turn left into the studio.
The pair make their way to the sofas. After a long train excursion from Manchester, tea with milk for Bradley and water for Jeanette puts everyone at ease. Mother and son sit with the warm sun on their backs, facing Rhoda and Andy. Angela, Andy’s assistant is away from the studio today. Andy’s younger daughter, Emilia and I are sat parallel to the group, excited for the discussion to begin. Faint music can be heard playing from a distance. Bradley is usually the one asking the questions. In 2006, he founded Mix-d, an organisation that aims to elevate discussions on mixed race identity. Mix-d is today a place where all people of multiple heritage are able to express their feelings on the subject. This fantastic organisation has several ongoing projects, including an information pack offering helpful advice for parents and imminent parents of mixed race children. Last year they held the second Mix-d Face, the UK’s first modelling competition for people of mixed race and judged by Jade Thompson, the winner of Britain’s and Ireland’s Next Top Model.
Today, it’s Rhoda who will be asking the questions. Andy explains the project originated from several questions that kept resonating in his mind. “What impact, if any, does having an English father and a mother of Afro-Caribbean descent have on my children? How does the world’s view of my three children affect the way they see themselves?” Bradley nods in between Andy queries. “Okay, I get that.”
Andy concludes, “and it would be interesting to have a project where we could get people from different mixed backgrounds to share their life experiences and bring new faces and a new dimension to the discussion.” Bradley is the ideal candidate for this project. He has spent his life negating his own racial identity and brings this determination to helping others at various stages in their own understanding.
Pressing ‘play’ on the video recorder, Rhoda adds, “before we get started, we would like to thank you both for taking part.” There’s that smile of Jeanette’s again. She has a sip of water.
Excerpts from Bradley and Jeanette’s testimony.
Rhoda Where are your parents from?
Bradley My Mum is white English, my Dad is black Jamaican.
I have been lucky enough to know Gary for nearly ten years; he was one of my son’s first ever football coaches, his enthusiasm and his positive attitude helped develop my son’s love of the beautiful game. Over the years we have kept in touch and after talking to Gary about mixed he agreed to come into the studio to be photographed with his mother Lisa for the project, after the shoot we were able to have a chat to Gary to find out more about his family and his experiences growing up in London in the 90’s….
“My mum and dad met in north London in an area called Holloway where they were living at that time and they had the same circle of friends. They were around 15 years old when they met. I think from that point they were together for about another 10 years before separating. My Dad’s a middle child in a Caribbean family from Grenada. His parents came over to England in a boat, as far as I know. He’s got 6 brothers and a sister; they were all born here …so I’ve got a big background on my Dads side! My mum, Lisa is a Londoner. Her grandparents met in north London and the family has been in the same area for the past 60 years. Mum’s family all originate from North London…I went to school in Somers town, which is between Camden town and Kings cross. There were definitely gangs, which were often based on the colour of your skin. The school I went to was made up of mainly Asians and Whites, but there were also Blacks and a few Mixed Race kids too. I used to get beaten up loads by the Asian gangs, but the whites and blacks generally stood together beside me and held my corner.
When I went round my Mum’s side of the family, they just saw me as being me and when I went to my grandparents’ on my Dad’s side, they also just saw me as me. They didn’t judge me. They didn’t do nothing like that. So I grew up in a happy home, as they say. I remember when the tick boxes first came round; I didn’t know what to tick because they didn’t have too many boxes. They just had white, black and mixed. I always thought that’s not really what I am, so I didn’t know what to tick, which meant I left it blank. But as they got more boxes I started looking and asking, what am I? So now I tick usually Black Caribbean other or mixed Caribbean. I had different models, different things. One day I’m in the pub with my Mum’s side playing pool and darts and the next day I’m in the park with my Dad’s side having a barbecue. So I had the luxuries of both worlds…they brought me up to feel the same as them. Multiculturalism! – It does exist. No so much outside London, but definitely in London it exists. Further North you go you still have divides but in the south in London, it’s multicultural. You’ve got everyone. There’s multiculturalism in jobs. My team is half black half ginger. (laughs)”
Thanks to Gary and Lisa for coming in and taking part in mixed.
Introducing our first Mixed twins, Stephen and Louise Hoo. We happily stumbled across Stephen on a feature for Channel 4’s “In Conversation with…” talking about his work in the theatre and we knew we had to get in touch with him about Mixed. The first time we spoke to the actor and rising playwright, he was busy playing the part of Eddie (lead) in ‘Takeaway‘ over at the Royal Stratford East and we set a date for the end of it’s run for him to come in to the studio.
In his career, Stephen has sought out work that deals with themes of homosexuality and identity, and his roles typically go against the stereotype of what it is to be Chinese and gay. How Stephen sees himself is complex and contextual… he identifies as ‘Eurasian’, ‘British Chinese’ when he is in Europe, and ‘Hun Xue’er’ or ‘Mixed Race’, when he is in Asia. His sister Louise on the other hand, describes herself as English in relation to her race, but nevertheless her Chinese heritage is very important to her. Louise currently works in the financial industry, however she also has a strong footballing pedigree having played internationally for Malaysia, (the twins’ father’s birthplace). Stephen and Louise’s mother is English and they were both born in London.
What drew us to Stephen is that he quite clearly has some very interesting views on his own identity, particularly with the additional dimension of sexuality in the mix. In his testimony, he talks about how his choice of study has been greatly influenced by a desire to learn about his culture. Stephen studied Theatre at the world-renowned Brit School and thereafter, attended the School of Oriental and African Studies to study Modern and Classical Chinese. He has even lived and travelled in the Far East in order to further explore this element of his mixed heritage. He certainly didn’t let us down, he was fascinating and very open about his life and his experiences.
Below: Trailer for Rikki Beadle-Blair’s ‘Kick Off‘ (2008) featuring Stephen Hoo
Happy belated corrective lunar drift day everybody. Having the extra day in February has made all the difference, giving us the opportunity to rewind back to summer of last year and another memorable day in the studio, when cricketing brothers Mark and Gary Butcher generously gave an afternoon of their time to the Mixed Project. After a successful shoot, we sat down to hear the brothers’ unique perspectives on Mixed. Rhoda and I even found time for a quick orange juice and a chat off the record with the two legendary batsmen at the local tavern.
The Butcher brothers’ father, Alan is a former left-handed Surrey batsman who opened for England. Born in Croydon in 1954, the head of this exceptionally talented family is now known for his coaching, previously leading Surrey and recently spearheading Zimbabwe’s return to test cricket in 2011. Elaine, the Butchers’ mother, was born in 1954 in Camberwell. Two years prior, her parents had sailed over from Jamaica to settle in England.
Older brother Mark, born in 1972, made his debut for England in 1997 and went on to play for his country a total of 71 times. ‘Butch’ made a formidable eight centuries with an average of over 34. He also captained Surrey before retiring from professional cricket in 2009. When not in the cricket commentary box, Mark focuses on another talent he has been nurturing since he was thirteen: playing the Blues, with The Mark Butcher Band. We got to check them out at The Borderline a while back and we were really impressed… their debut album, Songs From the Sun House was released last year to positive reviews and is on our selective studio playlist at the moment (the cover portrait ain’t so bad either!). Following encouragement from friend Eric Clapton, the former batsman went on to enjoy career highlights including a duet with Sarah Brightman on the BBC’s Just the Two of Us, and playing at the Royal Albert Hall along side Albert Lee and Bill Wyman.
Gary is the younger of the two brothers, born in 1975 and is also a former first class cricketer. Starting his career with Glamorgan in 1994, he famously took a wicket with his first ever delivery (to cricket virgins, it just doesn’t get better than that for a debut). Gary went on to join his brother Mark to play for Surrey in 1999 and won a county championship whilst he was there. Gary was a cricketing all-rounder, bowling right-handed with a touch of swing. His best bowling was 7-77 with an average of 37.93, whilst with his bat he achieved a top score of 101 not out with an average of 27.89. Today, he has found a different avenue for his passion teaching at King’s College Wimbledon School.
We’re looking forward to sharing with you extracts of the brothers’ revealing testimony soon.
After an extremely busy couple of months in the studio we have at last had time to concentrate on the Mixed project again. The 22nd of June seems a long time ago, but it was a special day for Mixed as Rachel and Isabel (Rachel’s mother) both kindly gave up some of their valuable time to come in and take part in the project. We promised we’d show the final image for all to see as soon as possible, (ahem, five months later) and we’re finally there! We also thought it would be a great opportunity for a further detailed re-cap….
Isabel, whose grandmother was Spanish, is from the Philippines. Her grandfather was a doctor who was one of the founders of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) in Southeast Asia. She spoke in depth from the perspective of a mother to three mixed race children and as a Filipino living in England bringing up her mixed family; Rachel the middle daughter of three, the eldest Angela; a ballet dancer and model who runs her own ballet school and the youngest Rebecca, who performed in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams and is currently a series regular on the UK TV series Holby City. Rachel spoke in detail, about her childhood in Nottingham, her life in the film industry, and her own perspective of being of both British and Filipino heritage, and says that she feels very much apart of both worlds. Rachel’s father is Baron De Longueuil, a doctor and hypnotist of English-Scottish, French-Canadian descent. Now living in the USA, she spoke about the contrast of life in America with her experiences growing up in England.
Both Rachel and Isabel are very proud of their Filipino heritage. The two of them now run a registered charity called The Padua Charitable Fund that raises money to build houses, hospitals and schools in poor areas of the Philippines. By 2024 they hope to reach their goal of ending poverty for five million poor families in the Philippines. As if that wasn’t an all-encompassing task in itself, Rachel is also global ambassador to a new and successful organic cosmetics company called Human Nature. Their philosophy is based on producing natural, locally sourced products, Fair trade, support for local farmers in developing high value crops, and ultimately in providing world-class yet affordable organic skin and hair care from the Philippines. Human Nature is the brainchild of Gawad Kalinga volunteers Anna Meloto-Wilk, Dylan Wilk and Camille Meloto. All three had the desire to do even more for their country, and Rachel wanted to do what she could to help.
We wondered where Rachel developed such a strong philanthropist spirit. She explained that it largely stems from her mixed heritage; she feels she has had the privilege of learning about and enjoying two distinct cultures and has been able to travel a great deal in her lifetime. Having seen such deprivation in the Philippines she became steeled into action, driven to do something about reversing this poverty.
There have been many more visitors to the studio since Rachel’s visit, and I’d like to say there would be at least one more Mixed update before 2012 comes around! But just in case, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from Warner Street.
Angela Griffin was in the studio a week ago and now joins a growing list of sitters we have been honoured to meet and photograph for the Mixed Project. Angela has worked extensively in television acting in well-loved British soaps including Emmerdale, Coronation Street and Holby City. At the age of 14, she was spotted by a talent scout who visited her school. Angela appeared on our television screens for the first time in Under the Bedclothes. In 2008 she made her film debut with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson in Last Chance Harvey. She recently had her own day-time talk show Angela and Friends on Sky1.
Angela came along to the studio with her husband and their 2 young daughters. After the portraits Rhoda talked with Angela about her identity, background and her upbringing in Leeds. Angela’s view of her identity centred around being a Northerner first and formost.
In 2001, as part of the Channel 4 programme, Brown Britain, Angela got the chance to interview her mother. Angela also interviewed well-known people of mixed race such as fashion designer Bruce Oldfield and Hanif Kureshi.
I look forward to sharing more of Angela’s testimony and photos as the project progresses.
The Mixed Project is very much a combination of photography and words, with each part complementing and strengthening the other. Before I photograph our sitters, singer and songwriter Rhoda Dakar joins us in the studio to lead an informal discussion around our sitter’s lives and experiences. She treats every ‘interview’ like the first and is intrigued by each person’s story and history. Her warmth makes each meeting special and it is from these insightful conversations that we have our testimonies which are recorded and transcribed at a later date, allowing us to take words and thoughts from the conversation and lend them to their image which in turn gives them some context and more importantly, gives each face a voice. It was an introduction via Myspace that led to a meeting with Rhoda and thankfully she was enthusiastic enough about the project to kindly lend her time to it. I was eager to contact her because her musical background during a very pivotal time in Britain’s history and my personal history led me to believe she would have some strong ideas about being ‘mixed’ and her own thoughts would give a fascinating slant to the project.
Back in the last century, in my early teenage years (era 1979-1983), I was influenced by ‘Two Tone’ bands and their ethos which Rhoda was a part of. Two Tone drew from 1960′s Jamaican Ska music, New Wave and Punk music, essentially an amalgamation of cultural sounds and style which produced a new British identity in youth culture. These bands were often multi-racial line-ups and sung a message of integration during a time of racial tension in Britain. It was an unsettled and confused time, typified in films like ‘This is England’. My own views and ideas about race, politics and culture were partly shaped by bands and music of this time.
Rhoda’s father is from Jamaica (born in Panama), and her mother is English. Rhoda was born in Hampstead and grew up in Brixton before going on to become lead singer of the Bodysnatchers. She also collaborated with the Specials & the Special AKA, best known for tracks like ‘Ghost Town’ and ‘Free Nelson Mandela’ which for me, perfectly define early 80′s Thatcherite Britain. Rhoda’s most recent work is a collaboration with prominent Ska artist Nick Welsh released in 2009, an album entitled Back to the Garage. She is also a regular DJ and recently returned from a stint at the pop and politics tent known as Leftfield, at Glastonbury 2011.
Last week we photographed Die Another Day Bond Girl Rachel Grant and her mother Isabel. Isabel is from the Philippines, while Rachel’s father is of English-Scottish descent.
As is now usual with the testimony, Rhoda Dakar joined us before the shoot for her customary cup of Earl Grey and together with Rachel and Isabel, we all sat down and discussed everything from the use of the word ‘Oriental’ to perceived multiculturalism. Rachel gave us a fascinating insight into her childhood experiences growing up in Nottingham and her current life in New York. Isabel talked about, among other things, a question in her head around her children’s ‘mixedness’- we’ll let them tell you in their own words… extracts to follow.
After a hectic week shooting commercially, today we were finally able to sit down and begin the process of choosing the best image from the shoot. This is always a challenge and a catalyst for much debate in the studio.
Isabella, 17, on what it means to her to be mixed-race:
“I’ve decided that neither my parents nor others will define me. I will define and describe myself. I see myself as tanned rather than either black or white. My mother is white and from Portland, Oregon (USA) and my father is Jamaican with Asian blood and born in England. Even the government tries to define me with the tick boxes they give you on forms asking what race you are. It’s irritating and pointless to me, but I answer anyway to make them happy – with mixed white and black Caribbean.
Britain is a multicultural country, which I think is great. I am not the only person of mixed-race at school. Several of my friends I hang out with are mixed. I have never felt excluded because of my skin colour from my friends, family or anyone else. I hope I never will.”
Dennis on his children growing up within two cultures.
I think two experiences can only mould, make the person stronger and enrich their own experiences. If you’re lucky to experience that outside of your own ethnic group then that’s great. But a lot of people, who don’t get the opportunity till too much later on in life… by that time their own experiences will be entrenched. The brain’s already wired to think in a certain way.
Going outside our home, on our street and the surrounding streets- there are a number of mixed couples. And that’s what I like. I like that I can go to the park and I know I’ll see a mixed race child, the dad’s there, the mum’s there, and you kind of get those experiences.