Tom Hunter - talking about his work

Tom Hunter

‘What is a nativity scene about? When I first thought about it, I thought of a school playground, of camels and kings. 

But then I realised it’s actually about a young homeless family, and their struggle to find a place to bring up their children. 

My photograph is of Leyila, a young refugee from Somalia, and her eight-week-old baby, Kymora. 

I photographed Leyila and Kymora in their living room, basing the image around Caravaggio’s painting The Nativity with St Francis and St Lawrence. 

Caravaggio used ordinary people as models, which I find very inspiring. I used an old Tungsten light, which takes about 15 minutes just to warm up, to give the photograph that “Caravaggio light”, and to create a contrast between the cold blue light from outside, and the stark reality of Leyila’s flat. 

But what I wanted to show above all is the beauty of the simple connection between a mother and her child'

"It's inspired by Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter – except she's a squatter reading a possession order

 

I wanted to show the dignity of squatter life

I was living in Hackney in London, in a whole street of squats, having spent two years travelling around Europe in a doubledecker bus.

Everyone got a letter addressed to "persons unknown".

The council wanted to knock down the street and build warehouses.

The Tories had brought in the Criminal Justice Act, which was designed to stop parties. Every time you saw a picture of a squatter or a traveller, it was to go with a story about how antisocial they were. I just wanted to take a picture showing the dignity of squatter life – a piece of propaganda to save my neighbourhood.
I took this in 1997, for my master's degree show at the Royal College of Art. The 17th-century golden age of Dutch painting had had a massive impact on me: the way they dealt with ordinary people, not kings, queens and generals.

I thought if I could borrow their style for squatters and travellers, it would elevate their status. In this shot, inspired by Vermeer's Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window, my next-door neighbour is reading the possession order.
Filipa had just had her first baby. We spent the whole day trying things out: we had a bowl of fruit, then we tried some curtains, then incorporated the baby. The light was perfect, a late winter sun coming through the window, really low, like the northern European light.

I used a large-format camera, which really captures that light. And I used the Supachrome process to print it – old-fashioned even then. The exposure was about a second, so it was like sitting for a painting: she had to stand still. I was waiting for the light to pour into the lens, rather than snapping at something.
I phoned her up last week and she's still happy with the picture. It's a record of her, her child and her home at the time. The great thing is, the picture got a dialogue going with the council – and we managed to save the houses."