Belonging in Britain is a digital storytelling project that uses analogue film photography and audio interviews in the form of a podcast. The project explores symbols, institutions and traditions that are celebrated as being distinctly British. These include football, the NHS, corner shops, Grime, pubs, pie and mash and the rule of law. Our project shows that behind these great British institutions is a collection of individuals from a variety of ethnic, social and economic backgrounds.

Modern-day Britain has been underpinned by a growing reassertion of British traditions, often accompanied by exclusionary rhetoric and suspicion of ‘non-British’ communities. Moreover, the government’s rhetoric on making the UK ‘a hostile place’ for unsavoury immigrants underpins a belligerent climate, where groups are targeted and shamed. This flies in the face of Britain’s long history of welcoming and benefiting from a patchwork of communities.

This project photographs and interviews a diverse group of people of different ethnicities, religions, genders and sexualities. They represent the many different faces of Britain, but many do not embody the traditional concept of ‘Britishness’.

We have gathered content from Black African, Asian and LGBT communities, asking them: in what way do they feel their trade or tradition is an important part of a British identity; how connected they feel to Britain; and to what extent these advocates of British identity, feel that Britain offers them a home to belong – ethnically, socially and culturally.

The photographic content of the project was produced by photojournalist Joe Newman, while the audio interviews were conducted and edited but Claire Mutimer of the Backstory Podcast.

The Belonging in Britain project exhibited at King’s Place in London.