The people who live and work in east London take centre-stage in two new photobooks published this week by Hoxton Mini Press.
The publishing company, which was founded last year by Hackney-based photographer Martin Usborne and Ann Waldvogel, is releasing titles by Institute photographer Zed Nelson, and Madeleine Waller, who both live and work in Hackney.
[bjp_ad_slot]A Portrait of Hackney features images from Nelson’s series Hackney: A Tale of Two Cities, which explores the clash of cultures and contradictions that exist in the London borough. Waller’s book, East London Swimmers, is a lively collection of portraits of the people who flock to London Fields Lido all year round.
“Hackney is a socially and ethnically diverse melee,” says Nelson, who has lived in the area all his life. “It has violence, beauty, wildlife, concrete wastelands, poverty and affluence jumbled together, all vying for space. It is tattered and fractured, but very alive.” Through collected landscape images, candid documentary shots, and environmental portraits, Nelson captures the complex character of this bustling, diverse, and most of all rapidly changing borough.
The books are the latest titles in the imprint’s East London Photo Stories series, a collection of affordable photography and illustration books about east London. More titles, including one by photographer Dougie Wallace, are expected later in the year.
A Portrait of Hackney and East London Swimmers are available to buy from bookshops this week. Signed copies, artist prints and collectors’ box set editions are available to buy (with free postage) from Hoxton Mini Press.
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