During summer 2026, local young people came together in Jaywick, Essex, for the Jaywick Youth Visual Storytelling Programme. Facilitated by photographer and journalist David J. Shaw and Shannon Ghannam, Director of Development and Programming at the Peter Marlow Foundation, the programme invited participants to co-create stories about their own experiences of the village. We are proud to share the work we made through the launch of this digital newspaper.

The seed for the programme grew from Shaw’s year and a half long documentation of life in Jaywick, and his motivation to look beyond the village’s infamous reputation and negative narratives shaped by its government-declared status as England’s most deprived place. The programme aimed to offer “a more personal, and kinder view” of the community, by giving local young people the opportunity to respond to these narratives themselves.

Through collaborative creative workshops and conversations, participants explored why there was such a big media interest in Jaywick and it’s deprivation, what the motivation behind these stories could be, and what Jaywick was actually like to experience. During the programme, we were lucky to invite a range of industry guests, including photographers Diana Patient, Jadine Wells and Timi Akindele-Ajani, and Observer Newspaper photo editor Cheryl Newman, who delivered workshops sharing skills, advice on project development and guidance on careers in the creative industries.

The projects presented in this newspaper celebrate different aspects of Jaywick’s close-knit community, co-created through activities such as a community photobooth on the beach and a fashion shoot with the princesses from Jaywick’s Carnival Court. The newspaper was distributed locally, with a screening and exhibition event taking place at the Never Say Die pub where the community could come and see what we made. All the project participants presented their work, and then we celebrated with a karaoke party in the pub after.

Alongside this visual representation of Jaywick, the programme also formed strong new friendships and partnerships within the community. We would like to say a huge thank you to the community of Jaywick and everyone who supported this project!

You can find the digital newspaper here, where you can read more about the individual participants' projects. The work created during the programme will also be exhibited at Photo North Festival in Leeds 2027.

Congratulations to everyone involved in the programme for their amazing work:

Barnaby Chinnock
Millicent Glasgow
Kian Mills
Tommy and Luke Martin
Sandra Crawford

Thank you to the Newspaper Club who sponsored the printing of the newspaper, and to Thomas Hornby for its design.

This project was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with equipment kindly provided by Fuijifilm.