Nick Hedges was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, in 1943. He studied photography at Birmingham College of Art from 1965 to 1968, and as a final project he worked with Birmingham Housing Trust on an exhibition about the city’s badly housed.

On leaving college, Shelter employed Hedges to document the oppressive and abject living conditions being experienced in poor quality housing in the UK. On his visits to cities including London, Glasgow, Manchester, Salford, Bradford, Liverpool and Newcastle, Hedges captured astonishing scenes of families negotiating life in slums. 

In Hedges’ belief, photographers should work on projects to support the reformation and improvement of society, and through his photographs, he hoped to help raise consciousness about the extent of unfit living conditions.

Family living in a single room, Moss Side, 1969.

Children playing on wasteground, 1969.

Housewife in the backyard of a terraced house, 1969.

Bedroom ceiling, Moss Side, 1969.

Clothes drying in the garden of Moss Side multi-let, 1969.

Mother and son in the kitchen, 1969.

Mother and her daughters living in a substandard property in Manchester, 1969.

Irish immigrants recently moved to Moss Side, 1969.

Single man living in one room of multi-let house, Moss Side, 1969.

Single man living in one room of multi-let house, Moss Side, 1969.

Colliery viewed through bathroom window, Burnley, 1969.

Game of cricket on wasteground, Moss Side, 1969.

Personal Loans shop, 1970.

Street scene, 1970.

Children in their bedroom, 1971.

Mother and son in slum housing, 1971.

Children’s bedroom, 1971.

Mother and toddler in slum housing, 1971.

Children playing, 1971.

A child at the end of an alleyway, 1972.

Father and son on the front porch of multi-let, 1972.

Elderly couple left in semi-derelict property, 1972.