Joyce Edwards' School Portraits: A Reunion Quest

0:00On May 2nd, back in the early 1980s, amateur photographer Joyce Edwards captured striking portraits of kids at Gospel Oak Primary School in North London. Shop between 1980 and 1982, these black and white images show curious young faces staring right at the lens. Now her archive keepers are on a mission to track down those children who are in their 40s and 50s today. Joyce started snapping photos later in life after raising her son and running a boarding house for artists in Hampstead. She picked up a roly flex camera in the late 1950s, won a big amateur award in 1973 and dove into projects on. Squatters, kids, and seniors basically the full arc of life. Friends and families say her secret was her quiet vibe. She was shy but drew people out naturally, letting their true selves shine through. Her Hampstead home buzzed with creative types like poets and actors and she fit right into that bohemian scene, even having her son out of wedlock.

1:01Back when that raised eyebrows, after Joyce passed in 1999 last year, her pal Derek Smith and nephew Andy Lunton dug into thousands of negatives and prints. They found gems like those school portraits plus her late 1970s squat series that got turned into a book. They're pushing for an exhibition to spotlight her work and hoping it leads to a permanent archive spot where researchers can dive in. And maybe reunite her with those gospel oak faces.