About This Event

Reclaiming the Archives is a four-week participatory photography and artist’s book workshop residency led by artist Caroline Lacoma. Across four Sundays, participants will be invited to bring personal or family photographs and explore the memories, stories and identities held within them. Through writing, stitching, collage and bookbinding, we will slowly transform these photographs into handmade artist’s books. Each session explores a different way of engaging with the photographic archive: 🧵 Threading Memory — using stitch and textile to intervene in and reimagine photographs. ✍🏾 Writing Memory — writing from, to and with photographs through poetry, prose and reflection. ✂️ Cutting Memory — exploring collage, fragmentation and layering to reshape photographic memories. 📖 Binding Memory — bringing the collected photographs, writings and materials together into a handmade artist’s book. The workshops invite us to consider the personal archive not simply as a record of the past, but as something we can question, reinterpret and reclaim. You can attend an individual session or join the full four-week journey. No previous artistic experience is required. Just bring a few personal photographs that mean something to you. 📍 VIF Art Café, South London 📅 Sundays 6, 13, 20 & 27 September 2026 ⏰ 2–5pm 🎟️ £15 per session / £50 for the full residency 👥 Limited to 10 participants per session All materials provided. Come with your photographs. Leave with a new way of seeing them.

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