Well the trip to 5 Fournier Street went pretty well, if very exhausting…getting up at 5 am every morning and keeping busy all day!
I learned a number of things from the trip.
- At this time of year twilight is too late for the streets to be empty. I will need to return to re-do some of the shots in the Spring when twilight is about 5 am. Then for example I might be able to capture Brick Lane empty.
- The sodium street lights are a nightmare from perspective of both avoiding flare and most especially the colour of the light. I need to work on how to deal with this to get a consistent approach to colour balance which keeps the colours in the sky true but avoid excessive and horrible red colour casts on the buildings.
- Five days in a row is hard going. My motivation was flagging towards the end. More shorter stays might be more productive.
- I made contact with a local photographer who has offered to act as an intermediary with possible subjects for the portrait series and to introduce me to key people in places such as Toynbee Hall where I would like to photograph the interiors. He also suggested I think about an exhibition of the work in Spitalfields where there is always lots of interested in exhibitions of local interest. I have started to think about this and am wondering if I might stage a week long exhibition at 5 Fournier Street – an exhibition of photographs/texts which investigate the question of immigration staged in a place previously occupied by one of the first foreign immigrants living in the area sounds like an interesting proposition. I would do this on the basis of selling prints with the net proceeds going to a local charity such as Toynbee Hall. Lots of questions and issues arise from this – cost, feasibility of venue, how to promote it, how viable is it and so on.
I have now put together a small portfolio of 15 images which are of a quality that I would consider using them – although they are by no means a final edit. This will allow me to consider if the series appears cohesive. I am going to allow the dust to settle a little before forming a judgement on this and also I will be submitting this mini-portfolio along with texts to my Tutor in April. In the meantime I will be making a few more one day morning trips to London as there are a few more locations I have yet to complete.
What is also beginning to emerge in terms of the theme is that my photographs/texts seem to be dealing with the ephemeral nature of immigration in the area and particular issues and struggles faced by immigrant communities – prejudice, racial violence, religious and state intervention, poor employment and living conditions and so on. I will probably re-examine my artist’s statement to reflect this once I have confirmed on the photo/text combinations I plan to use.
For now I have presented below a contact sheet of my current ‘selects’. I will post more on these and my thoughts on how they hang together and the texts I plan to use in future posts.
East End Project – Urban Landscapes 10th January 2014
©Keith Greenough 2013
photo-graph 
anomiepete
January 11, 2014
Blimey, there is so much in those images Keith! Three jump out at me for different reasons:
1) Second row down central image is just full of evocation and style – old and new, light
values, textures and form are all wonderful but I am less sure what is says about the experience of immigration without text.
2) Central image third row down – whereas here the worn on one side step and old – grand but rather tatty – door evoke all sorts of connotations and so doesn’t rely on any anchoring text so much.
3) and the third row down first image through the window contrasts with the light values of the others but again offers a sense of time travel with the juxtaposition of old and new buildings seen through the window.
It will be interesting to see how you present these to generate your intended meaning.
Keith Greenough
January 12, 2014
Thanks for the comments Pete. The second row down central image is an old coat factory, and before that it was a pickle factory, both owners were Jewish. I have yet to source a relevant text for this image and may end up not using it, but it is one for the archive. The third row down central image is the entrance to a house on Princelet Street which has an old synagogue in the rear garden. I have a great text to accompany this image which is a 19th century quote from Beatrice Webb about how the Eastern Europeans use to have to tramp through houses to the the makeshift synagogue in the rear. The window shot was taken from the living room at 5 Fournier Street and shows contemporary signage and buildings but mostly the portico of Christ’s Church Spitalfields. Christ Church was built between the years 1714 and 1729 as part of the church building programme initiated by the Fifty New Churches act of 1711. At the time, there were fears that ‘godless thousands’ outside the City of London had no adequate church provision, and that non-conformists – including large numbers of French Huguenot silk weavers – were moving into Spitalfields and bringing their non-conformist worshipping ways with them.’
Catherine
January 11, 2014
I’ll be very interested to follow how you work out the colour balance problem.
The first one second row down leapt out at me from the contact sheet. It’s the only one that shows a person (even though it’s not a real one) and I got to wanting to hear a ‘voice’. But then, your are including some text as well.
the Exhibition idea is very interesting and I hope it works out for you.
Keith Greenough
January 12, 2014
I think the colour balance issue will have to be dealt with separately for each image as the exact nature of the underlying colour sources varies for each situation….
Its interesting that my deliberate choice not to include people has made you feel starved of a ‘voice’. Does an image need a person in it to give it meaning? I was concerned that including people would cause the viewer to concentrate on the human elements and not on the place and text…
Catherine
January 12, 2014
I think this might be because it’s a while since you last posted images about the project (well – it seems a while). In this sense I’ve been less immersed in how you’re going about it all and so I come back to the images themselves almost with rest eyes. Does this have implications for all the different viewers at, say an Exhibition?
I’m thinking now about the balance between people and place. Does the place define the person or the person the place? It must vary in so many different permutations. I can visualise a procession of ‘ghosts’ going back over the centuries who have shaped and defined this area. All those different lives, hopes and dreams. I know at what point you were writing of speaking to people who live here now. There are so many different directions that could be taken. You’re the one who is shaping this though; it’s your project.
Slightly off tangent, how was it to actually ‘live’ in the area for a while? Did you have any dreams in that old place, new inspirations etc?
Keith Greenough
January 12, 2014
It was great fun to live down there but it was also exhausting. I was up at 5 am each day.
On the question of people I am planning to include a series of portraits to sit alongside the landscapes and interiors. In these I hope to photograph 2nd or 3rd generation immigrants and to include a caption referring to their family history. I have located one subject who’s grandmother took part in the Battle of Cable Street carrying a Molotov cocktail for self protection.