What it’s like to be part of Britain’s displaced youth

‘Waithood’, a term first coined by Diane Singerman when describing the youth of the Middle East and North Africa, is defined on Wikipedia as a period of stagnation in the lives of young, unemployed graduates. It refers to a prolonged adolescence that has crept into the lives of people across Britain, where public sector jobs are being slashed and fewer opportunities are available for young people. These are people who are waiting: to find a home that isn’t their parents’, to sustain themselves on their own salaries, to evade the crushing debt that’s crippling thousands across the country.

Sophie Wedgwood’s series Waithood explores the void that’s swallowing a legion of frustrated young people. Inspired by the candle-lit canvases of 17th century Dutch painters like Gerard van Honthorst, Wedgwood has produced stark depictions of 20-somethings exasperated by their living situations.

“Living at home has its problems – it’s a weird dynamic and often has a stigma attached to it”, Wedgwood explains. “Taking photos in the confines of the domestic space, I think it helped show how stressful and claustrophobic it can be.”

It’s an issue that’s reverberating across the country, but Wedgwood focuses on London, where the flow of cash from big business has seen house prices rocket exponentially. She captures her disillusioned subjects in warm, hazy light, boxed in physically and mentally by their surroundings.

“Housing pressures and overcrowding is especially bad in London, and homelessness has risen by 80 per cent in the past four years. I really just wanted to show a small part of a much larger issue,” she says.

Check out more of Sophie Wedgwood's work here