Growing up on Clissold Road, Neil Martinson spent his days reading photography books at the local library and staring longingly through the windows of camera shops, hoping to save up for one of his own. Now, 50 years later, Neil’s photographs capturing the essence of Hackney since the 1970s can be viewed in his new exhibition at Hackney Museum. His work shows the working conditions in the borough through the decades, with a particular focus on women in the workplace.
Neil’s parents were both born in Whitechapel to Jewish immigrants from Holland and Russia. He attended William Patten and Hackney Downs School, while working at Woolworths in Stoke Newington on Saturdays.
“Each week I would look in awe at the window of North London Cameras and their wondrous display,” he tells me. The Pentax Spotmatic, a camera which today looks incredibly dated, “seemed to be the height of sophistication” but all he could afford on his savings was a Russian-made Zenith E. He remembers them nostalgically – “built like a tank with a lot of knobs and dials, but they all had a satisfying clunk when operated”.
Neil began taking pictures of everything around him. “I was very young when I started and didn’t really know a lot, but I was very political from a young age,” he says. “For me photography then was about righting the wrongs in the world. When I was 16 I was part of a group that produced an alternative schools magazine and helped organise a school strike at Hackney Downs.”
Taking photos requires a degree of confidence, which Neil had to learn. “Inevitably you start with what you know and can see and what you feel confident doing. It’s a bit scary taking photos of people so I started in street markets where it was easier and eventually I was able to feel more confident in getting consent and talking to people.”
Through his photography Neil has documented how Hackney has grown, developed and changed. “When I left Hackney Downs School in 1972, Hackney was still in decline. Much of the housing was very poor, there were virtually no childcare facilities, no bookshops, and slowly the nine cinemas were closing down until one only one was left by 1989.”
As culture disappeared from Hackney, Neil explains, “the population declined from a high of almost 400,000 in 1901 to 179,000 by 1981. It seemed that Essex was proving more attractive to residents than the empty houses and streets of Hackney, though that was good news for squatters.”
In 1971, Centerprise, a community centre, became a cultural hub on Dalston Lane bringing with it a bookshop, coffee bar, exhibition space, advice centre and publishing project. Neil worked at the coffee bar. It was here that Neil developed his first photograph in a dark room. “Soon the project formed the base for all kinds of campaigns, citizens’ rights, play, writers’ groups and literacy programmes. It became a hive of activity,” he tells me.
Neil became involved in the People’s Autobiography of Hackney, a Workers’ Educational Association group which recorded the oral histories of local people. “Suddenly we started to have a voice and discover our lost history and lives,” he says. This project inspired Neil to start taking photos of the working conditions and injustices present in Hackney as he wanted to “give record to those who had been hidden from history”.
After studying a documentary photography course, Neil continued photographing the residents of Hackney. In 1981, he was commissioned to document working conditions by the Hackney Trade Union Support Unit when the borough was a major manufacturing centre. Clothing represented a third of all manufacturing firms, and employed 12,000 people.
“There were also home workers who were isolated with a sewing machine, wholly without any rights and badly exploited,” Neil recalls. “We were not to know that we were documenting the end of manufacturing in Hackney. The closure of the docks in the Port of London in 1980 and the development of containerisation led to the decline of the garment industry.”
Neil has watched Hackney evolve in this way for years, and didn’t hesitate when I ask what he thinks has been the biggest change in the borough since the 1960s. “The gentrification and ‘hipsterisation’ that has taken place and the massive changes in the kind of work available,” he says. “My photographs show a time when the manufacturing and garment industry employed thousands locally but looking at my images now I’m surprised by the heavy manual work that many women did.”
Housing is another area where Neil has witnessed radical changes. “Hackney had been an area of flux and change, often driven by immigration. With the sell-off of council housing and the expansion of the city, the amount of social and affordable housing has dramatically reduced. That will affect the kind of place Hackney is.”
Women feature prominently in his work, and as International Women’s Day comes around on 8 March he reflected on one particular woman he photographed. “Lucy De Groot was an organiser for Hackney Health Emergency and then Hackney Trades Council Support Unit. She fought really hard to improve conditions for workers in Hackney and to protect the health services.”
Through his work Neil has told the stories of many Hackney residents, but one event in particular stood out to him. “In 1981, I was taking photographs for a book on Jewish life in Britain and a rabbi told me about an event that only takes place once every 28 years. He directed me to a school playground in Stamford Hill where hundreds of hasidic men starting to turn up. It was Birkat Hachama, a rare Jewish blessing recited to the creator thanking him for creating the sun. I felt so fortunate to be there.”
Neil’s exhibition at Hackney Museum includes most of his work. “I’ve captured a certain period of time”, he explains. “I’ve always believed that it’s important to document the lives of people that are often hidden from history. Perhaps people will come away from the exhibition seeing the place and people in a different way.”
Neil’s exhibition is currently on show at Hackney Museum, where he will be doing a guided talk on Thursday 7 March.
Photography @neilmartinson
