The new exhibition opens at Four Corners Gallery on 30 June. Conditions of Living: Home and Homelessness in London's East End takes a visual journey from workhouses to slum clearances, tower blocks and homeless shelters, to explore how photographs have represented these conditions for over a century. It includes little-known histories such as the tenants' rent strikes of the 1930s, post-war squatting, and 'bonfire corner', a meeting place for homeless people at Spitalfields Market for over twenty years.
The exhibition features new work by artist Anthony Luvera, which addresses the rise of economic segregation in housing developments in Tower Hamlets, with the phenomenon known as 'poor doors'. Also titled Conditions of Living, this socially engaged artwork by Luvera is built on extensive research into the social, political and economic contexts behind the rise of market-driven 'affordable' housing provision and the state of social housing today, and is created in collaboration with a community forum of local residents who live in the buildings themselves.
The exhibition is accompanied by a series of talks and screenings, that will discuss the work in the context of campaigns for housing justice. Further information coming soon.
Conditions of Living is supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Anthony Luvera is a photographer and educator who works collaboratively with people who have experienced homelessness and addresses issues of housing precarity and housing justice.
Photographers: the exhibition brings together images by Katalin Arkell, Peter Arkell, Cyril Arapoff, Chris Bethell, John Galt, David Granick, Bert Hardy, Brian Harris, David Hoffman, Tom Learmonth, Steve Lewis, Jack London, Marketa Luskacova, Anthony Luvera, Moyra Peralta, Ray Rising, Andrew Scott, Alex Slotzkin, Norah Smyth, Humphrey Spender, Andrew Testa, Paul Trevor, Edith Tudor-Hart, and many others whose names are not known.
Four Corners would like to thank Getty Images and Tower Hamlets Local History Library and Archives for their generous contributions to this exhibition.