Turnham Green to Host Portraits of Polish Migrant Women

Display of work of Anna Jochymek explores issues of freedom

One of the works that will be displayed outdoors in June. Picture: Anna Jochymek

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May 20, 2026

Turnham Green will host a outdoor exhibition this June as Free.Her, a series of large-format photographic portraits by artist and ethnographer Anna Jochymek, arrives in Chiswick for a two-day showing.

Presented by Watermans, the free exhibition runs on Friday 19 and Saturday 20 June, 11am–7pm, and brings together twenty portraits created in 2025 through in-depth conversations with Polish migrant women living in, or connected to, the London Borough of Hounslow. Each portrait is paired with the woman’s own testimony, reflecting on her journey to the UK, the challenges she has faced, and the sources of strength and empowerment that have shaped her life.

The result is a striking collective portrait of a community often under-represented in public art. Through personal stories, lived experience and visual presence, the exhibition asks what freedom means to women today — not in abstract terms, but in their own words, identities and histories.

Free.Her was first shown outdoors in Brentford and Hounslow last year as part of Our Freedom: Then and Now, a national programme marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. Led by Future Arts Centres and supported by the UK Government through Arts Council England, the initiative commissioned 60 community-led projects across the country exploring past and present ideas of freedom.

Watermans Director Jan Lennox said the organisation was pleased to bring the exhibition to a new audience.

“We’re delighted that this important photographic exhibition by London-based Polish artist, Anna Jochymek, can be seen again at Turnham Green,” she said. “The portraits and testimonies tell a compelling immigration story.”

Following its original presentation, selected works from Free.Her will be preserved in the Gunnersbury Park Museum Archive, ensuring the voices and experiences captured in the project become part of the borough’s cultural record.

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