Grenfell, June 14th 2017.

In the early hours of 14th June 

2017 I received a text message from my 

daughter in Leeds. She wanted  to 

know if I was OK because there were 

reports of a fire near me. 

I scrambled out of bed and 

made my way to the balcony 

outside, onto my bathroom patio. 

I could not see the 

tower – just a thick column of foul 

billowing smoke, 

shifting slowly side to side.

I went instead to the front room and opened the window. What I saw will stay with me 

forever. The tower, three blocks down from where I live on 

Lancaster Road, seemed to have leapt forwards: burning, pungent and alive – I felt like I

could reach out my hand and touch it. 

The air was full of distant 

sirens and the chugging of helicopters, 

everything had changed in a 

moment.  

As time passes and media 

attention waxes and wanes, I am 

attempting to use 

photographs as questions, 

reminders and challenges; to 

record and mark time; using the physical and 

metaphorical qualities of surface, 

exploiting analogue materials, 

alternative processes, graphic 

communication, time-based 

media and installation to chart the collective 

trauma among some of the most 

economically deprived people 

living in one of the wealthiest 

London Boroughs; people who are 

frustrated and angry that such a preventable 

tragedy could happen. 

‘Smoke & Mirrors’ Steve Mepsted 2017-2020