Christopher Diedo is a young amateur photographer with Down’s Syndrome. Reporter DAVID MILLS hears how the 24-year-old doesn’t let his condition hold him back.
CHRISTOPHER Diedo is already a winner.
The budding photographer has won a prize in a national competition organised by Mencap and has had his work displayed in recent exhibitions at Dartford’s Mick Jagger Centre and the Proud Camden Gallery in north London.
He has also had photos on show at the Oxo Tower in London, as part of the Shifting Perspectives Photography Exhibition, in support of the Down’s Syndrome Association.
Christopher, of Lavinia Road, Dartford, got into photography after he approached the Mick Jagger Centre in Shepherds Lane about exhibiting his work.
The former pupil of St Anselm's Catholic Primary School, Littlebrook Manorway, Temple Hill, had 60 of his pictures exhibited in April and May, and hopes to have more work on display there again in the future.
Students at Dartford Grammar School took part in a creative writing competition based on the pictures, and he was invited to their end-of-year assembly to present prizes and give a speech about his photography to all 900 pupils.
Christopher says it is one of his proudest moments.
He said: “I was nervous but I did it.”
As for his hobby, he said: “Sometimes I take lots of pictures everyday and sometimes I don’t take any. It depends on how I’m feeling, where we are and what I see.
“Most of my best pictures are taken at the seaside when I go out with my family. I like to photograph the characters I meet and things I see at the beach.”
Christopher was the first person with Down’s Syndrome to get a full-time place at a primary school in north west Kent, after his parents won an appeal against Kent Country Council to place him at school with his older brother David and sister Rebecca.
He then went on to St Columba’s Catholic Boys’ School in Bexleyheath, where he was the first full-time pupil with the condition to attend a mainstream secondary school in the Bexley borough.
His father Andrew, believes Christopher’s achievements have positively altered perceptions of people with learning difficulties.
Mr Diedo, a retired teacher, said: “What marks Christopher’s photography exhibitions as different from many if not most others is that they are staged by a young man aged 24 with Down’s Syndrome who has significant to severe learning difficulties and associated speech and language problems.
“Not all the pictures that Chris takes are great but some clearly are and considering that he has had no formal training in photography, he has done remarkably well in taking images which have clearly impressed and captured widespread interest from the public.
“Through his photography, Christopher is helping to demonstrate that people with Down’s Syndrome can and do lead full, rewarding and semi-independent lives and they do so on a national scale.”
Christopher currently has a photograph of St Thomas’s Hospital on display at the Project Volume exhibition at the Truman Brewery in Brick Lane, London, which runs until November 5.
Visit Christopher’s website to see more of his work at christopher-diedo.co.uk
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel