Thierry Girard’s East End
Today it is my pleasure to show these photographs by Thierry Girard from 1976
“More than simply pictures from my early years as a photographer, these are the starting point of my photographic work. At the beginning of 1976, when I was twenty-four, I had just graduated from Paris Institute of Political Studies and I had no specific idea about my future. I was very interested in photography, I bought my first photography books and I went to exhibitions, but I had very little experience.
At that time, my interest was in British photography and photographs taken in Britain by foreigners. I was an Anglophile. I was fond of Bill Brandt’s work, of course, and I was familiar with the photographs of Tony Ray-Jones, Homer Sykes and David Hurn – but the real catalyst was to be Robert Frank’s portfolio of London & Wales published in the 1975 edition of the Creative Camera International Yearbook. Knowing London rather well —I had stayed there several times in the previous years— I immediately related to the atmosphere of Frank’s pictures.
So I decided to go back to London for a challenge, a rite of initiation: to face the outside world and do photography. I stayed in the East End where I had lived as a student, although I did not intend to do a reportage about the East End or Eastenders. I just wanted to walk for hours and days in, snatching bits of life, passing through dilapidated districts, pushing doors of pubs, rambling through markets and playing with kids. I spent time with a wonderful couple, clever and cheerful people, but living in poverty in a damp basement flat while sewing ties for chic French companies. At lunchtime or in the evenings I went to strip pubs. The people attending the shows, both men and women, were locals.
I hope these photographs made in London in 1976 are worth revisiting. Very few of these pictures have ever been published or exhibited, but what I did there at the time has been decisive for my future as a photographer.” – Thierry Girard
At the Elephant, Dalston
In Brick Lane
At the Elephant, Dalston
In Bethnal Green
Alan B, homeworker in Graham Rd, Hackney
In Mare St
In Wapping
In Ridley Rd Market
In Dalston
Betty & Penny B, Graham Rd, Hackney
In Hackney
At Limehouse Social Club
In Wapping
At Limehouse Social Club
In Bethnal Green
In Tower Hamlets
In Hackney
In Hackney
Hackney Empire
Photographs copyright © Thierry Girard
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Thank you.
I like the Hackney Empire photo the best as it conjures up many happy memories of theatrical stories as told to me by my dear Auntie Rae who lived with us.
My favourite one being on a warm night in the Summer a magician appeared on stage, snd presented my Auntie Rae, a lifelong resident of Stepney, with a beautiful drink with all different colours and flavours.
“It was the best drink I ever had.”
Thanks for sharing these exceptional photos. What has always struck me about certain photos of English streets is that there are no trees, no grass, no flowers. They looks so stark, and sometimes even bleak. On a separate note, I’d love to have a print of the main (viz. the first) photo; it’s brilliant.
Funnily enough, I was in Hackney and Dalston only yesterday taking photographs and remarking on the gentrification of parts of the area. Nobody would dispute that better housing is a good thing but there is still poverty if we look for it or stumble across it. There are still damp, mouldy flats and beautiful Victorian mansions. The East End is a place of stark contrast. I saw doughnuts for sale at £6.50 each on London Fields market but I also bought a homeless person lunch.
Another great set of evocative photographs.
These are really historic pictures. The East End, two years before I first came there. You can’t ignore the poverty and decay. But like Phoenix from the ashes, a cultural hotspot has emerged nowadays — not least thanks to G.A.’s blog!
Love & Peace
ACHIM
Wonderful photographs, thank you for sharing them.
I can’t help but feel sorry for Alan B and his family who look to be living in very poor circumstances. Perhaps doing home work pressing ties was all that was available to him as a source of income at that point. I hope they went on to better housing, more financial security and a better life.
My dad lost his job in around 1970 when the mine he worked in closed down due to being waterlogged and dangerous. It was very difficult financially as there was no help with things like rent like there is now. He could claim unemployment for himself and something for me, but my mum had to get a part time job working split shifts cleaning at the local high school.