It's funny how projects can escalate. This project began as the Sevenoaks Behind the Counter project, a limited scope project aimed at celebrating the small traders that make the town buzz. Following discussions with the Kaliedoscope Gallery, I have been offered the gallery for 3 weeks from the 15th January 2025 until the 1st of February. This gives me the time and the opportunity to extend the scope beyond the highstreet traders and to explore other facets of work life in the Sevenoaks district, including artisan craftsmen and people in the service and caring sectors, all of whom are essential elements of the town.

I'm hoping that the exhibition will be the launch pad for community initiatives in 2025, focussing on the people of Sevenoaks.

The plan to date includes:

Behind the Counter show at the Anchor during the Summer Festival
A dedicated website
Kaleidoscope exhibition in January
A book to accompany the exhibition
Community workshops/initiatives linked to the exhibition

I run regular photography
workshops and courses

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Prints Now Available

Fine art quality prints of the Behind the Counter pictures are now available to order online Click the link below to order

Behind the Counter Additional Prints

Sevenoaks Behind the Counter

In 2020 Photographer Author Victoria Granville and Photographer Roger Lee published the book Sevenoaks in a Time of Change, This book was a snapshot of Sevenoaks and its people in 2020, 900 years after the town was first mentioned in history, and included images of many of the businesses in the town.

This project is a snapshot of the shopkeepers and traders, the people working and trading in the town in the spring of 2024 It was inspired by an image taken by chance on a street photography workshop that I was running in 2023, of Nick in the COOK store

Shops and traders are the beating heart of any town, but how often do we think of the people who make this happen on a daily basis?

The Sevenoaks Behind the Counter project explores the 100+ traders and shops that trade in the centre of the town. Previous projects have recorded the outsides of some of these businesses. In the Behind the Counter project, I'm exploring the people behind the shopfronts and market stalls .

I will be photographing shops and traders during May 2024. Some of the images will exhibited at the Anchor, in London Road from Saturday 22nd June as part of the Sevenoaks Summer Festival.

I'm also planning to include pictures from this project in the Kalidoscope exhibition and the book of the project that will include images of all the shops and traders who participate in the project.

If you want further details or would like to participate, drop me an email on paul@paulburgess.photography

I took this picture when I was running a street photography workshop in Sevenoaks in 2023. I dodged into COOK to buy a meal for the evening and spotted Nick standing behind the counter. The image was the inspiration for this project - Thanks Nick.