Belfast’s Youth

Photographer Toby Binder is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this documentary photography. From the book/project ‘Wee Muckers – Youth of Belfast’. To see Toby’s body of work, click on any image.

Belfast, Carrick Hill.
Brendan behind a police line on Trinity Street.

Belfast, Village.
Backyard view on Tates Avenue.

Belfast, Shankill.
Boy playing football in front of a Union Jack painted on the wall.

»If I had been born at the top of my street, behind the corrugated-iron border, I would have been British. Incredible to think. My whole idea of myself, the attachments made to a culture, heritage, religion, nationalism and politics are all an accident of birth. I was one street away from being born my ‘enemy’«.

Paul McVeigh, Belfast-born writer and author of the novel ‘The Good Son’

Belfast, Shankill.
Boys on wasteland at Lanark Way.

Belfast, Shankill.
Bonfire preparations on Conway Street.

Photographer Toby Binder has been documenting the daily life of teenagers in British working-class communities for more than a decade. After the Brexit referendum he focused his work on Belfast in Northern Ireland. There is a serious concern that Brexit will threaten the Peace Agreement of 1998 that ended the armed conflict between Protestant Unionists and Catholic Nationalists who live in homogeneous neighborhoods that are divided by walls till today. Old conflicts may recur, compromising the youth’s future prospects. Nevertheless, being underage, most teenagers were not allowed to vote in the referendum. Problems they struggle with are similar – no matter which side of the Peace Walls they live on. And whatever the effects of Brexit will be, it‘s very likely that they will strike especially young people from both communities.

The images of the project “Youth of Belfast” were photographed in six different neighborhoods of Belfast. Binder’s photo essay depicts the ubiquity of unemployment, drug crime, and violence afflicting Belfast’s youth, whether they live on one side or the other. Whatever comes of Brexit, the ramifications will be felt by communities on both sides. The project accompanies teenagers in six different Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods, providing an intimate and immediate insight into the daily lives of a whole generation.