Photographs & text by Jack Savage.

Semilong Blooms: How a Northampton Community Turned Wasteland into Hope.

In the spring of 2024, a small corner of Semilong - one of Northampton’s most overlooked neighbourhoods, began to bloom. What had once been a neglected patch of land, overgrown and strewn with rubbish, caught the attention of Louise Troy, a resident who saw potential where others saw decay.

 “I used to walk past this spot every day,” Louise recalls. “It was such a sad, forgotten place. But I could see something else in it. I wanted to make it beautiful — a space for families, for art, for community. I planted the first tyres in October 2022, and slowly it has grown from there.”

That vision became the Semilong Garden Project, a grassroots effort to transform derelict wasteland into a thriving community garden. With the help of neighbours, volunteers, and a small grant, Louise began clearing the site, one wheelbarrow at a time. Soon, others joined in. Families brought seedlings, local artists donated paint for murals, and children planted wildflowers in old tyres. Slowly, the garden began to take shape -raised beds, a mural wall, benches built from reclaimed wood.

“It’s more than gardening,” Louise says. “It’s about connection. People who’d never spoken to each other before are now planning events together. You can feel the energy changing.”

Through the Photographer’s Lens; My impressions of the community project:

When I first visited Semilong Garden in March 2025, it was mid-renovation -mud underfoot, the air buzzing with energy. I was invited by Louise to document the project’s Grand Unveiling. On October 4^th 2025  I set up a portable photo booth, an improvised studio beneath a canopy, and invited residents to step forward and be photographed.
The portraits - became a collective snapshot of the Semilong community. Each person stood in front of my lens as themselves: unfiltered, not posed, proud. My aim was to capture their presence in a way that felt truthful, intimate, and immediate. I approached the series in a documentary style, inspired by the raw honesty of William Klein and the quiet timing of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment.” I wanted the work to feel grounded in that same tradition - humanistic, empathetic, and unscripted.

There’s a certain electricity in photographing people at a moment of transformation. The pride in their faces, the joy of achievement, the shared ownership of something built by hand, those are the moments you live for as a documentary photographer. The Art of Growing Together As the garden took shape, Lumina Arts Alliance, a Northampton-based organisation I often collaborate with, supported the project by running creative well-being workshops on-site, from painting and collage to therapeutic photography sessions.

“Art helped bring people together,” Louise explains. “Some folks who didn’t think they were creative suddenly found their voice through these workshops. It gave everyone — especially the kids — a sense of belonging.” Between the laughter, paint-stained fingers, and spades in the soil, there was a growing understanding that the project wasn’t just about plants. It was about healing. “Gardening is therapeutic,” Louise says. “It gives you a reason to get outside, to connect, to breathe. It’s done wonders for people’s mental health around here.”

 Faces of Renewal The resulting photographs, twenty portraits and five street images, form a visual record of this transformation. The portraits show the gardeners, neighbours, and children who made it happen; the street shots capture Semilong itself: its terraces, its edges, its quiet resilience. Taken together, they document a community mid-bloom, turning forgotten ground into a living canvas. Each image tells its own story. A young volunteer grinning beside a wheelbarrow. A retired carpenter resting on a bench he built himself. A mother and daughter holding the first bouquet grown from the new beds. These are not just photographs of people standing in a garden — they are records of a collective act of hope.

A Growing Legacy Since its completion, the Semilong Garden has become a hub for community events - from family picnics and seed-swap days to outdoor art sessions and photography exhibitions. “When you give people something positive to belong to,” Louise reflects, “they flourish — just like the garden.”

For me as a photographer, Semilong Blooms represents the essence of documentary storytelling: local voices, everyday heroes, and the beauty of transformation. It’s a reminder that photography, like gardening, is ultimately about nurturing, watching something grow, and knowing you’ve helped capture a moment that might inspire others to do the same.

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