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The cover photograph taken in Fieldgate Mansions , Whitechapel, in 1978 epitomises the contents of this book.
Five Bengali boys clamber over, sit on and enter a derelict old Fiat 500. White paintwork scratched, dented, paint flaked off revealing rusty patches, dirty and grimy bodywork, the windows gone, even the splintered remnants sometimes found when windows are smashed that still remain attached to car window frames gone too. The tyres appear to still be inflated. One boy smirks at the camera, two laugh out loud with gusto another two appear to be imaging driving the car. Cracked tarmac, a stained brick wall with the word ,RUBBISH ,painted roughly in white in large letters. There are curtains still on the windows of the terraced house behind them so presumably it is one of their homes. It looks lived in. The boys are living in poverty and dereliction, but they are full of impishness, humour and imagination, “endurance and joy.” We ask, why are these boys enduring these impoverished conditions? What has brought them to this existence? Why are they so joyous? This book with its intimate and sometimes journalistic photographs tells the story of many living in poor circumstances and gets close to an answer.
In his introduction David Hoffman provides a short autobiography getting us close to why he wanted to take these photographs in the first place and why he obviously still cares and has curated this exhibition of photographs at The Museum of The Home.
David begins his introduction with his first experience, at the age of eight, of taking photographs with a little KODAK camera. He then describes attending Tiffin Grammar School in Kingston upon Thames and hating the authoritarian disciplined, oppressive atmosphere he suffered. This revelation brings up the question of what education is for and what it should be. He was, “thrown out,” of Tiffin’s just before his A’ levels. He took his A’ levels later at Kingston College of Further Education, a place that treats its students like adults. A college of further education is very different from a school. He obtained some science A’ levels. The two Universities that he attended were not successful experiences either. He did not complete a degree. Joining The International Socialist Movement and travelling down to London from York University to go on demonstrations against the Vietnam War informed his politics. The rights of ordinary people and creating a home and all that means is one of the vital aspects of life that has deep meanings for everybody. This is one of the underlying themes of this book. His photographs show us people surviving and creating homes from very poor means, against the odds. A fitting theme for The Museum of the Home to display.
In 1973 he studied communication design at the Northeast London Polytechnic. His grant from the government allowed him some financial security for a while. The course wasn’t much good but he picked up many ideas and skills from other famous photographers such as Ansel Adams, Cartier Bresson and Diane Arbus. The Daily Mirror employed him. He got commissions for magazines and began to build up his own stock library. He began to make a living.
Two things come across about David. Firstly, that he rebelled against what he felt was expected of him as he was growing up. Secondly, that from an early age he found a love of photography which drove him on and inspired the rest of his life. Many of us suffer the same as David Hoffman, feeling that we are pushed into a life that is not what we want at heart. But not many of us find such a purpose in life as David Hoffman did with his photography which has been his driving force. Or perhaps maybe we all have something which ignites a fire within us but it is stifled and extinguished along the way because of the social circumstances we are in.
Many of these photographs show people with amazing and surprising talents that if only they were nurtured in the right environment would have gone on to conquer the world in their expertise. One of the things that these photographs reveal to me is the appalling waste of talent. It brings me back to how society should be organised and how education, not only in our schools and universities, but also lifelong learning, should be approached. These are some of the vital questions David Hoffmans photographs incite.
During his early years as a photographer David moved to London and because of the lack of a steady income he moved about from one impoverished area to the next, living in squats. From Notting Hill in 1969 to Whitechapel and Chicksand Street. He moved on to Black Lion yard and eventually Fieldgate Mansions. All the time recording what he saw and experienced with his camera.
Poverty, oppression, especially by the local police force and the local council appear in his pictures. He got to know the squatting community well. Prostitutes, dope dealers, the homeless, communities making the best of what they have, people hardly surviving amongst squalor, its all there in David’s photographs.
His photographs of Whitechapel attracted the alternative press who published his photographs. He photographed National Front demonstrations and their attempts to get a foothold in the East End which were often blocked and barred by the locals in counter demonstrations.
He shows the racism that could occur. A Bengali family put into a house by the council on Clerk Street suffered terrible racial abuse.
In April 1981 he photographed the Brixton uprising (riots) which taught him a new type of photography. He learned the ability to photograph in an extremely violent fluid situation.
Among the photographs that took my attention, and many of the photographs in this book I found spoke to me in so many ways and from which I learned a lot, is the photograph of Jane and Percy , two old age pensioners. David recorded the interview he had with Jane in September 1978.
The photograph shows two old people. Percy is in the foreground and in focus and Jane is slightly blurred in the background. They appear to be in a church crypt, perhaps. A sloping brick arch curves towards them from behind. Percy is playing a mouth organ and has his eyes closed as he becomes lost in his tunes. Jane sits scarfed and overcoated looking at a piece of paper in her two hands, perhaps a form she must fill in. She tells us that the shoes she is wearing she found in a skip and the clothes she has on were donated by members of her family.
“Percy helps me, shares his money.”
I’ve only got one blanket and I let Percy have that, I put all the coats over me, but that eight pound, they shouldn’t have done that really…God will punish them.”
It’s a bedsitter. I wouldn’t mind a better flat or else I’ll have to go int a hostel. It’s going to be damp in the wintertime. I wouldn’t like it but I haven’t got much stuff.”
The interview extract appears to be the answers Jane gave to David, to his questions. It is a little disjointed but you certainly get a sense of Jane’s poverty but she never gives you the sense that life is completely hopeless. She is hanging on through the pain and the difficulties of her life. I was left feeling anger for the local council of Tower Hamlets for not being humane. I felt heartbroken for Jane and her friend Percy.
Many of the photographs show scenes of fun and joy. So many festivals were organised by local people. They dressed up, played games, danced and had fun. The ability to plan and organise these festivals I am sure is complex and requires an ability to plan and bring a diverse number of people, organisations and various entities together. One of my daughters worked in events management at one time. She was paid well, and her company made a fortune planning events all over Europe for high profile events. Those people who organised the various festivals in Whitechapel and surrounding East End streets were just as able it seems to me. The events included The Bigland Green Festival, Limehouse Fields Summer Project for children, Bethnal Green Pigeon Club, Teviot Festival in Langdon Park Poplar, youth clubs, boxing clubs, old peoples exercise sessions and a Christmas party at St Hilda’s Community Centre, Club Row.
A telling set of photographs are of the THAP ( Tower Hamlets Art Project) who celebrated their work at The Whitechapel Gallery. Nicholas Serota, the director of the gallery at the time and nowadays a museum gallery leader, nationally and internationally, a top academic, disapproved and really didn’t like what they were doing. It seems he didn’t have a choice but to let THAP use his gallery but this demonstrates what the art world thinks of as appropriate and acceptable and who they consider should be classed as an artist. The establishment didn’t approve. Why not?
Another photograph that caught my attention was of two young men and a dog. The photograph catches them in full flight, in fluid motion, one after the other, moving like fleet footed athletes scaling a brick wall. They are repossessing a house after the council had evicted them as squatters. There aim was to have a roof over their heads that night. A space that, even for a short period of time, they could make home. It reminds of a picture I have seen in The Guardian newspaper , the sports pages, of athletes scaling barriers during an Olympic Final steeplechase. The athletes became renowned throughout the world, appeared on TV for millions to watch, were awarded Olympic medals and had fulfilling careers in athletics.
The police do not come out of David’s pictures in a good light. They are brutal and intimidating. There are photographs of the police in numbers aiding the eviction of squatters. There are pictures of the police breaking up legitimate protest marches and wrestling protestors to the ground. The two page picture of the police lined up outside of Stoke Newington Police Station in 1983, creating a show of arrogant force infront of demonstrators passing by protesting about the fatal shooting of Colin Roach inside that very police station shows a police force that is certainly not for the people . Police break up marches protesting about the treatment of the Newham Seven, break up demonstrations by legitimate strikers over the actions of the News International. The force of law fulfilling what local and national government and big business want of them does not account for the desires and needs of local people who just want housing, who just want to feel free of racist and fascist intimidation, who want to live normal safe lives in a diverse community and have a job and a home. The photographs do not show a police force on the side of ordinary people. There must be a better more creative and productive approach to the poor people of this country.
Every photograph in this book tells a story of creativity, survival, joy and endurance amongst the most dire circumstances. They are worth looking at and engaging with. The questions that they inspire should create discussion. Although they are about our society in the 1970s and 1980s they should also inspire discussion about the here and now. Some things have changed but there are so many similarities and many new problems to deal with.There are food banks I many parts of the east End. The Museum of The Home runs a food bank. The number of people living on the street is increasing. The price of a home, a flat or a house are beyond a large part of our population. It’s 2024 not 1987. The question still is asked. What can we do?
Endurance & Joy in the East End: The Photography of David Hoffman, is on at The Museum of the Home. It is curated by The Gentle Author and designed by Friederike Huber.
David Hoffman’s book is published by Spitalfields Life Books October 2024
to coincide with the exhibition at The Museum of The Home.
THE GENTLE AUTHOR links:
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/06/21/the-gentle-authors-coronavirus-diary/
https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-masterclasses/write-a-blog-the-gentle-author
BUY THE BOOK AT: Spitalfields Life Books
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2024/09/15/endurance-joy-in-the-east-end-1971-1987/
BUY THE BOOK AT: The Museum of The Home online : https://shop.museumofthehome.org.uk/
Friederike Huber link.
https://spitalfieldslife.com/2014/12/18/friederike-huber-book-designer/
