A Town Explores A Book 2022 celebrates 50 years since Rumer Godden’s young adult novel The Diddakoi told the story of a mixed race child of Romany descent and her struggle to maintain her travelling culture following the death of her wagon dwelling guardian.

Since the novel was published, the demarcation between the nomadic and the settled has become less clear than ever. Many Roma no longer travel but guard their traditions. Many New Travellers are second or third generation and were born on the road.

CREDIT: Jules Earl

In this exhibition ─ running from 2-18 April at Electro Studios ─ Hungarian Roma photographer Béla Váradi and New Traveller Jules Earl investigate how their own wider communities continue to preserve identity, culture and community. Unconsidered by most, Romany and traveller peoples and cultures are woven into the fabric of our society beyond caravan holidays and ‘gypsy fashion’, as they have been for centuries.

Béla Váradi worked as a journalist in Hungary and was a founding member of RadioC, Europe’s first Roma radio station. Moving to the UK in 2011 in the wake of the Orbán government’s crackdown on independent journalism, Váradi turned to photography, working on projects about immigration, Roma journalism, and minority representations. His recent coverage of a BLM protest in London was nominated in the professional Photojournalism category at the Fine Art Photography Awards 2021 and widely published.

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Jules Earl has lived on the road for over 20 years in the UK working as an HGV driver, site manager, waste analysis technician and photographer. Her knowledge of, and access to, disparate and sometimes hidden groups enable a personal and direct focus on travellers’ roles as integrated members of the wider community as well as their own.

• A free gallery event at 5 Seaside Road, St Leonards will be held on Friday 8 April in solidarity with International Romani Day. 


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