15 November, 2018
From Hackney's tranquil waterways and flower markets to delightfully grotty 1980s Dalston and the raucous nightlife of Shoreditch, East London is awash with hidden narratives, subtle beauty and unexpected humour - often thanks to residents who are as eccentric as they are eclectic.
This compilation of photographs is dedicated to East London's outdoor swimmers, overall-clad young mothers, bleary-eyed footballers and ethereal landscapes. As typified as the subjects they photograph, this curated selection of photographers explore a cross section of one of the capital's most vibrant areas and it's ever-evolving populace through a timelapse of photographic excerpts.
Photographer Chris Dorley-Brown spent two summers in the mid-1980s photographing drivers stuck in traffic jams; the cars, colours, haircuts and expressions of frustration capture the mood and tone of a unique era in Thatcher's Britain.
Zed Nelson has lived his whole life in Hackney - it was there he learnt to ride a bike, first took drugs and lost his virginity. His work highlights the complexity, contradictions and clash of cultures in an ever-changing Hackney.
Shot with a 1950s Rolleiflex, Andrew Holligan's black-and-white images of Dalston in the 1980s are accompanied by hand-written notes and give a glimpse into the lives of numerous characters he met during two years spent living in Dalston.
Photographer Johanna Neurath has ventured down Columbia Road nearly every Sunday for the past 10 years to visit the flower market. Turning her attention to the colour and pattern left behind as the market clears out, Neurath focusses on strangely beautiful displays in gutters, hazy reflections in windows and the abstract forms created by cigarette butts and polystyrene cups strewn across the road.
East London Photo Stories is published by Hoxton Mini Press.
