East End Archive

EAST END ARCHIVE

BY CHRIS DORLEY-BROWN

In 1984, Chris Dorley-Brown, a British photographer and curator, started to photograph the corners of East London with several multiple exposures, which gave the possibility of creating a dream-like scenery composed by several narratives happening at the same time. The long term project is a reflection on how those are places of brief interactions and intersections and shows the ever changing side of East London.

The archive is a wide ranging colour record made with medium format colour negative film and, after 2006, digital cameras. Numbering around 8000 images, the archive is expanding it’s scope to include the outer east London boroughs. The pictures study architecture, public events, civic life, portraits, development of housing and social services. Elements of the archive are collected and held by various London Borough archives, the Museum of London, Barts Hospital, BBC and several private collections.