More Of Fran May’s Brick Lane Photos
April 11, 2021
Shall we take another walk around Brick Lane with Fran May on a damp wintry Sunday in 1976? Responding to popular demand, here are more of Fran’s splendid photographs of Spitalfields which have recently been published in two books.
BRICK LANE by Fran May, published by Cafe Royal Books
FRAN MAY, PHOTOGRAPHY 1974-78 published by Storm Books
Photographs copyright © Fran May
You may also like to take a look at the earlier selection
10 Responses
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It’s really true: market activity, in whatever age, shows the character of people in a beautiful way …
Love & Peace
ACHIM
I was eleven years old in 1976 and yet these wonderful photos feel to me as if they hark back to a time that pre-dates my existence. Did the world really look like that? Perhaps it is a similar phenomenon to the one of believing your contemporaries look older than you do (at least on a good day!)
Such great collections really do demonstrate the value of photographing things that seem ordinary at the time.
So very moving to see these pictures that shows all of humanity, so poignant at this time of empty streets and no markets. Wonderful rich photographs thank you Fran.
I sometimes wonder what draws us to photographs like these. Maybe it’s the resilience of the people who cope with their hardship in an indomitable way. Always on the look out for a bargain or a deal they take what ever life throws at them and come back for a little more.
Not one mobile phone to be seen, heaven.
Yes, I too have loved the richness and detail of this and the previous set of Fran May’s photos – they contain so much to look at and that and the textures, particularly of the clothing, make them very rewarding. I love the quizzical tenderness and affection shown in the expressions of the two men in photo number 4, the innocence and camaraderie of the women in no 7, and the tenderness of the man with the little dog in the last picture. I think the way people hold themselves and the gestures they make change over time so recording these things, by accident or design, is precious.
these photographs are so wonderful and make me wonder about all the individual people’s lives. there were probabaly a lot of amazing stories. now i guess we just have to imagine and make some up.
Brilliant.
I enjoy the photographs and wonder how many of the people in them are still alive and what they might be doing now. The stories told by the photos are so interesting and full of life.
Timeless striking images, another world…
I lived in London in the 1980s, used to haunt the East End, Brick Lane in particular. The images of working-class life now vanished. Transporting