Today I'm With You

I feel I don't want to talk about the past.

OK. Is it OK?

Yeah.

# God is good to me

# God is good to me

# He holds my hands and helps me stand

# God is good to me

# He hold my hands and help me stand

# God is good to me. #

# Ha-ah-ah

# Hallelujah. #

Long Headlam.

Here we go.

I came upon Byker, really, by chance, in 1968.

Arrived on top of the hill on a Saturday morning

and saw the streets full of people, music playing,

amazing communal atmosphere and I just fell in love with the place.

I decided I wanted to live there

and I ended up just walking round knocking on the doors,

asking if anybody knew of a flat coming vacant and eventually one did.

So, I moved in and lived in Byker for seven years.

I started photographing it because I thought it was such an amazing place

and I wanted to tell everybody.

And my way of telling things is through photographs.

I would often just wander around with a camera

and I would photograph children playing.

In those days, you could.

Although I didn't set out to do a long-term documentation of Byker,

it did become that.

And I decided to photograph families in their homes.

By then, of course, I knew my neighbours pretty well, anyway.

Or they knew me.

'She comes from Finland, such a beautiful place.

'Nice and clean.

'And she chooses to live in Byker!'

They knew what I was doing in Byker,

so I wasn't a complete eccentric, any longer.

'She goes around taking photographs and gives 'em away for nowt!'

I'm trying to steady your nerves for you a little.

'But I also felt the women,'

certainly, took me under their collective wing.

'But she's alreet. Canny, aye.'

I think they felt that I was a little bit lost, maybe.

'Poor little bairn. So far from home.'

BUZZER

BUZZER

What do I do? I can't get in.

'In this project, it's definitely by the invitation

'of the person in the picture.'

Oh, excuse me.

Thank you.

'I'm not going in just to be a fly on the wall.

'But I'm really hoping

'that the initiative comes from the subject.

'Of course, that's a horrible word, "subject". That's just saying

'what I don't want to do, which is to subject anyone to this process.'

17?!

'But I would like the relationship to get to the point

'where I'm invited into their lives,

'then they offer me whatever it is that they want to offer.'

-Excuse me.

-Uh-huh?

Do you have any idea where number seven is,

because it seems to be missing on this floor?

According to this, you've got a seven here, a seven here

and a seven here and, obviously, they'll have to look into that, like.

They've put the wrong thing on.

-Three number sevens.

-Mmm.

OK. Start again.

-OK.

-Thank you.

-No bother.

-Hello.

-Hello. Yeah? She's gone now.

She's gone now, yes, sorry.

-Oh, have I missed her?

-Hello.

She's gone.

When people asked me, "What are you doing it for?",

I started thinking,

"Well, maybe I could make a book one day."

And once I saw that it was beginning to look like

a documentation of a community in a wider sense, I also began to feel

I owe it to the people who I have been involving in this project,

a record of their own community.

So, I'll show you a little bit about my project.

Yes, all right.

-So you know what you're letting yourself in for.

-Yes!

You can always change your mind if you think,

I don't like what she's doing!

That was Byker, long before you came here.

The history, yeah?

It's changing Byker.

Really changing.

That was how the old streets were.

They used to come down from the hill all the way.

-Up?

-To Newcastle, yes. Yeah.

They change.

Yeah!

Have you had any thoughts about the photo?

You did talk about praying.

Yeah.

And I was wondering whether that's something

you might want to show us?

Or...is that too private?

Or is it something that you...

-Because religion is obviously very important.

-Yes.

Is there any other way that we could

show that religion is important to you, in a picture?

OK, like a Koran.

-You've got a Koran?

-Yes.

I'm losing the spokes of my

beautiful, home-made reflector stand here.

CRACK OF GLASS

Oh, God!

It's all right.

It's like a walking disaster.

'It doesn't always work out the first time.

'Sometimes it just doesn't work out at all.

'But there's not really that many complete failures on my part.'

I don't know if this is going to work without the missing spoke.'

LAUGHTER

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

They're proper lights.

Yeah. I think it looks nice with a bit

of bright light coming from there.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

SHE RECITES FROM KORAN

It's like singing.

This is Koran.

Byker was demolished in order to make way for the new redevelopment.

All my neighbours, all my friends there, were dispersed.

'I used to go to the Hare and Hounds pub at the bottom of my street.

'I remember the first time I went there, there was singing going on'

and, as soon as I sat down, a drink arrived on my table.

I didn't know who had ordered it.

There were just smiling faces round the room.

Just, you know, my neighbours.

Just their way of saying hello.

But one place that has remained is Pam's Hairdressers,

where women who were moved out of Byker 30 years ago

still come back to. And where I'm still remembered.

Sirkka. Sirkka... I say Reeka.

You're doing very well!

'My hair's very fine, like a baby hair.

'Old fashioned.

'From the '50s it was.

'I had this hairstyle.

'So it's a good thing for me Pam's here.

'She's only one that can do this style.

'I mean, other ones can't do it.

'The young ones haven't been taught to do this, you see?'

-Oh, you can't see, can you, though?

-I wish I could.

Oh, yes.

Is that right, then?

So, where you going tonight, then?

Nowhere. Stopping in.

I thought that what would be nice, now that the old community has been dispersed,

I could play a little part in introducing people to each other.

I would invite people, in a way, to put themselves and their lives into just one picture.

And then something totally surprising might happen

that would be completely beyond my imagination.

You seem a little tired.

Have you had a tough day?

So, what do you think?

It's nice, it's very nice.

Everything is nice.

Is nice one.

Maybe, following on what you were saying last time

-about your concern for the children.

-Yeah.

You know, how westernised they've become and you would like them

-to retain some of the values that you have.

-Mm-hmm.

-Yes!

-I'm scared for my kids.

Every day, I saw the kid is coming out with this.

"Oh, my God. Help my kids, help!"

I blow for you, OK?

Especially Byker.

You sit down smoking,

drink, talking, the people, "You bastard..."

Something like that. It's a different culture here.

-That's nice, lovely light, actually.

-Am I gonna get ice cream?

-Yes, I get you it tomorrow, OK?

-Do you want to be in the picture?

That's OK. That's OK, Maryam.

That's OK.

Oh, damn!

I'm missing all the nice moments.

BOY SNEEZES

Bless you.

I draw inspiration from Renaissance painting.

There you have tableaux of people's lives

that are often mostly wealthy people, of course,

who would commission a portrait that would show their status in society

and their standing and their wealth

and their servants or dogs or wives or whatever.

I thought I would love to create portraits in these tiny little

Byker flats, that afford that dignity to people and that self-expression

and that feeling that they are in charge, this is how they want to present themselves to the world.

Come on, my baby.

Come see how mammy is.

Oh, what a pretty girl you are, oh!

You're gonna have your picture. You are.

Come here, me puppy.

There, my baby. There she is.

Ah!

What a good girl.

Aren't you a good girl for mam?

What a lovely girl.

Oh, you're a lovely girl, aren't you?

Good girl, come and eat this, then.

Come and eat this, while it's nice and fresh.

Here, baby.

Come and see. There, on there, look. On there, for you.

There.

There.

Come, come.

There's room for you to get by. Room for a bus.

See, she's eating the pieces I've put on the mat. Now come on, eat them up.

There's a good girl. While they're nice and fresh.

She's away for a drink.

Wakey, wakey!

# If I had

# My way

# You'd never grow old

# The garden in May

# Any day

# You would reign all alone

# Like a queen on a throne

# If I had

# My way. #

I photographed a little girl with her grandmother, in a shop doorway in the 1970s.

When I was going round in the new Byker, 35 years later,

the mother of the little girl pulls me up and shouts, "Hello, Sirkka.

"Do you remember me? I'm Audrey".

And I got to photograph her with Kelly, the little girl,

who is now a mother herself.

Stevie was 16 when I photographed him, waiting to take his mother home from the factory where she worked.

I captioned him in my book as a skinhead.

Wrongly, as it turned out.

Then, I was photographing Bill.

Hello, Bill!

I left the door open, cos I was upstairs.

'And once he heard about my project, he said...'

Hello, son. All right?

"Oh, my daughter was in your first book!"

And he brought out the book and showed me, and, of course,

his daughter was Angela, who lived in my street.

She was just a teenager then and she had her baby on her arms, Mel.

I had no idea there was going to be this link.

I couldn't tell how many grandkids, great-grandkids I've got.

They all come to see me, clean the place, look after me.

I've had a wonderful life, loved every minute of it.

What a lucky bugger I am.

Many happy returns, you little old bugger!

-God bless.

-Many of them.

I'm not getting a kiss of you. I don't want a bloody kiss of you!

You're not supposed to tell people!

OK, the thing is, your model hasn't turned up.

She's been in a fight, she's got a black eye, she hasn't turned up.

-So, you are left to do it yourself.

-So I've got to model.

And if I turned like that and I went.

There.

I don't like that one.

-Have you thought about it?

-Yes, I have.

It's just not me. Isn't it not me?

Ah, now you're contradicting yourself here.

Because you remember the last time you did say

that you didn't like it because it was you.

I know what you mean, but I wanted to be, like, more...

The red picture's more me.

Look at it.

I don't want to look like that. I look all lost and I don't

want to be looking like that. I want to be looking like this.

But this is just a fashion shot.

It's not, though. It's not like that, really, cos it doesn't matter what I had on, it was just that would be...

-I like it.

-Well, you look...

I look thinking there, as well.

-You look... Hang on.

-I'm not even smiling.

-You're grumpy.

-I look thinking.

What about the other ones inside?

-You mean that one? That one?

-No.

I like that one. And you can see it all there. I think it's lovely.

-You're not happy there.

-I'm thinking.

And that's what you wanted. I was thinking.

-I look as though I'm a cracker there.

-No, you don't.

You don't. Look, I don't see what you see in there, at all.

Well, what do you see?

Like you're trying to look into your future.

And the difference to me between

these ones and that one is that these ones,

you could just look at them as a pretty girl in nice clothes.

They would be easily passed over as pictures.

That's what this picture does for me.

It actually is like the beginning of a story.

Right. I understand what you mean about everything,

-but every time I look at it, I think...

-I just want to know you.

-This is the picture that makes you...

-I know what you mean.

You want to get to know this person. It's compelling.

It's intriguing and...

it just draws you into it.

You know, you can't take your eyes of it. You think,

"I really want to know this story, what your life is about."

-OK.

-Or will be.

Yeah. Yeah.

I know where you're getting to.

-I do understand.

-Yeah?

You can use it.

I'll regret it when I see it.

-No, you won't.

-Oh, hello.

-Hiya.

-OK. Thank you.

-OK.

That's brilliant. I don't think you'll regret it.

-God.

-You won't regret it.

Right.

-Is this my story?

-That's the story.

Do you want to just have a look at it?

# So, why won't they understand?

# Oh, why won't they understand? #

# I'm sure, but isn't it sad?

# But who needs you? #

But, bless her, I stayed with her.

I stayed with her.

And I've never been right since.

It's a month yesterday.

When I go out, I come in,

I still expect to see her there, wagging her little tail at the door.

But it's not going to happen, is it?

And she made you happy.

Mm-hmm. She made me very happy.

I've even got a bit of her fur.

Oh, you know, Sirkka, that I loved this little dog.

# I wanna be around

# To pick up the pieces

# When somebody breaks your heart

# Somebody twice as smart as me

# And that's when I'll find revenge is sweet

# And I will sit applaudin' from a front row seat

# When somebody breaks your heart

# Like you broke mine.

# I know that living with you, baby

# Was sometimes hard

# But I'm willing to give it another try... #

CLAPPING AND SINGING

SHE SINGS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

SHE SINGS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

SHE SINGS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

SHE SINGS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

MIDDLE-EASTERN MUSIC PLAYS

My son's friend died during the bombs.

He was escaping with his mother

and he was running...away.

Then, one bomb fell

and was very near, and a balcony fell over him.

And the mother was behind.

She couldn't move, she saw her son -

he was killed.

Well, I didn't tell Hadi.

SHE SIGHS

OK.

I didn't tell him because I didn't want to put more pressure on him.

I thought I might tell him that...he went somewhere,

but unfortunately he saw it on TV.

My mum don't let me watch it!

When we came to England, Hadi started showing more aggressiveness

and he wanted to go back.

He was begging to go back to Lebanon.

He wanted to fight.

He was transferred to a psychiatrist because...

..he had like a nervous breakdown.

He was starting to imagine things

like birds talking to him.

And just sit in the corner of his room.

LITTLE GIRL WHINES

SHE SPEAKS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

-LITTLE GIRL:

-Smiley!

# If you're happy and you know it Clap your hands

TOGETHER: # If you're happy and you know it

# Clap your hands

# If you're happy and you know it

# Then you really want to show it

# If you're happy and you know it Clap your hands. #

WOMAN SPEAKS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

One!

Hello!

Oh, Mongolian music as well!

How are you?

I'm fine, thank you. Cooking, busy...

Shall I put apron on you?

When I began my new project,

there were, I think, 28 languages spoken in Byker

with refugees from all over the world.

Byker has become one of the major reception centres in the UK for asylum seekers from Africa.

LOTS OF CHATTER AND MUSIC

About time! SHE LAUGHS

CONGREGATION SING IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE

MANY PEOPLE PRAY ALOUD AT ONCE

I lived one part of my life where...I couldn't go out.

I couldn't, um...

go out down the town. I'd feel this force in me, this force of fear.

And it would be feeding me all these thoughts of like,

"Oh, this might happen to you or that might happen."

And it was "ifs" and "buts" and fears,

and all these scenarios that go on in your mind before you go off and do something.

With what happened to me asking Jesus into my life and...

..after a while, my life started changing, totally started changing.

Then having the supernatural experiences and all, and knowing that it was real.

So your self-image is just an idea.

And it's what you take from life and it forms that image.

We came to Byker... only fear in our heart,

myself and my daughter.

Because we struggle all the way

to save ourselves and now we are in a new place,

we don't know entirely anything about the place.

It's the first...

bad experience, meaning the first time...

Who is the person trying to enter inside the house?

That's a very bad experience.

We can survive anyhow,

but anybody tried to attack us or...

It's not me, for me it's my daughter.

'I'd have the prints in my box of everybody I'd photographed.

'And each time I met a new person I would open this box and say,

' "Look, these people are all living here, too.

' "They are your neighbours." '

'And, of course, almost everywhere I went people would say, "Oh, does she live here?"

'And in that way, you know,

'I was already carrying an ever-increasing number of new acquaintances for people.'

-CONGREGATION:

-# This is my story

# This is my song

# Praising my saviour

# All the day long. #

It's a great encouragement that today other believers, even from the other side of the world,

have come into this part of the country.

Where we sent missionaries

out to the Congo and places over there,

we can now welcome back maybe those who are maybe the grandsons...

Are you from Africa?

# Count your blessings See what God has done

# Count your blessings Name them one by one... #

And here we have a little baby, and we welcome him in here,

and we present him to all here tonight as a witness

that the desire of the parents is that they will indeed bring him up

in the fear and nurture of the Lord.

# Till we meet again

# Till we meet, till we meet

# Till we meet at Jesus' feet Till we meet... #

So, that was the bribery to get them to start to go.

When I say...

At Tommy's house, after his funeral, I found the photograph

that I had taken of him at the Mission Hall.

It was lying there on the mantelpiece, corners curling.

He'd taken it everywhere with him and shown it to everyone he met.

I was suddenly struck by this thought,

"He forgot to take it with him."

SHE SINGS IN HER NATIVE LANGUAGE

The only person I actually just accosted in the street was Gerel and Ariunaa.

They had such a feeling of benevolence about them

that eventually I just walked up to them and I introduced myself.

And they immediately invited me in,

and sat me down at the kitchen table.

And by the time I had explained what I was doing, Gerel said,

"Oh, can we be in the book and can I make an order for it now?"

I am from Mongolia and...

we are living here about three-and-a-half years.

Baby. Me-me, me-me, me-me. Me, me, me.

In the morning,

about 6 o'clock,

somebody knocked at door.

When I saw them I just...

Straightaway I realised why they'd come.

First...

handcuffed me and took me outside and put me in the van.

I could hear my children and my wife screaming,

but I couldn't do anything because I was locked...

And I asked them, um...

"What's happening to my wife and children?"

But they were saying, "It's not your business, just...

"Just be quiet."

Please help me.

I'm like everybody see me.

Because the Home Office is very, very danger.

Every month, I go sign for Home Office. I'm thief?

I'm robber?

I don't know... Maybe Home Office think...

I'm a thief.

I come here for money, for house - no.

I come here not for money, not for house, just freedom.

Ah, Ariunaa.

What are you doing? What are you doing?

What am I doing? I have no idea what I'm doing!

Oh, what a fine warrior.

Oh! Just a moment.

Oh, no, no. Don't touch the hat. No.

Hee!

Oh, that was nice.

I'll do that again.

-ARIUNAA:

-It's nice, yes? You want more?

Hang on. I'll take... That's a nice gesture.

Please.

Please.

Please.

Wow!

Look!

Yay-yay, yay!

Whoa!

'In the beginning, my overwhelming feeling was that

'when I was photographing people they were making a gift of it to me.'

I like the shoes and... Yes, everything.

'By the end of the project,

'I also began to get the feeling

'that it was me who was making the gift.'

This will stay in his life forever.

My boots, mine.

My boots!

In my place,

I don't how to travel about.

But now, here, I know how to travel about.

I know how to take the bus,

I can go and come.

Independent, more independent here.

I never dream about it!

It's a real change, today I'm with you.

My mother was part of the Campbell family

and they all lived on the same street,

Kendal Street, where they were born.

Then, when the new Byker came in,

they were scattered all over the city.

And it broke their hearts, the sisters.

Um, they... You know, they said they didn't care

that they had hot running water,

they didn't care that they had an indoor toilet,

they didn't care about all those things.

They just wanted to still be together in their own world.

They had no control over where they were sent.

And er... Yeah.

And now it's interesting to come back to Byker,

which was such a white world,

and...I had Liberian friend came to visit me shortly after my mother died,

he came to console me, actually.

And he said, "I've been here five days..." and this is in 2001,

"..and I haven't seen a single black face," you know.

And so now I'm trying to get him to come here in a couple of weeks,

come up - he lives in Cardiff.

I said, "Because Byker's changed, you'll see other black faces now."

You know, "There's lots of people here from Africa."

So to me, that's really rich.

Like, I've got my Kurdish neighbour, I've got neighbours from Chechnya,

there was people from the Congo downstairs,

someone from Angola, and someone from French Congo, Edna.

So to me, it's perfect.

It's bringing the world to my doorstep.

Maybe I won't have to travel so much! SHE LAUGHS

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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