ARMED with digital cameras and workshop training, pupils from Hackney’s Kingsmead School were encouraged by photographer Gideon Mendel to document their surroundings during a six month engagement.

The result is an exhibition of images, Kingsmead Eyes, that reflects the cultural diversity on the adjacent Kingsmead Estate, where 95 per cent of the pupils live, and captures the difficult social conditions and youthful hopes for the future.

As a parallel photographic assignment, Gideon also studied life on the estate and in the school, and produced an installation comprising of portraits of every pupil in the school.

Kingsmead Eyes runs at the V&A Museum of Childhood, Bethnal Green, from Saturday, November 7 to Sunday, February 7. Details: 020 8983 5200, www.museumofchildhood.org.uk (free)