Jo Spence. The Gypsies and Travellers Archive (1973-75)

The larger contact prints are especially significant because Spence would bring these images with her on her visits to show to the people that she had photographed.

These pictures mark are an important contribution to British social documentation of the 1970s and were also produced at a turning point in Spence's career. By the mid 1970s, after a number of years working as a professional portrait photographer, Jo Spence began to explore the political and documentary possibilities of the medium. This led to her involvement with the Children's Rights Workshop. 

Spence's early documentary work took a particular interest in how children are represented within the family environment and attempted to break through the usually scripted depictions of children within archetypal domestic photography. 

During this period, Spence met Terry Dennett who would become a lifelong collaborator. Working together, they photographed travelling communities living under the Westway in Notting Hill. Owing much to a social documentary tradition, the photographs explore issues around the representation of marginalised and underrepresented communities.

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