Hackney,
18
July
2014
|
12:38
Europe/London

Help Hackney Museum put a name to a face

Who is the man is this photo?

Hackney Museum is calling on residents to help identify people in a selection of photos for a new exhibition that will open in October 2014.

The forthcoming exhibition at Hackney Museum will be based on photographs taken mainly during the 1970s at Gibson’s photo studio, Lower Clapton Road, Hackney.

Residents who lived in Hackney at the time or know people who did could help identify some of the people in the 100 plus photos that will be displayed.

The amazing full collection of photographic negatives spanning the 1950s to 1970s has so many untold stories that Hackney Museum is keen to discover. The images from the 1970s that Hackney Museum needs help with include, weddings outside Hackney Town Hall from recently arrived African, Asian and Caribbean families; studio portraits featuring nurses from the Caribbean in their uniforms, Asian women wearing their best salwar kameez and saris, family portraits at home, university graduations and all the fashion and styles of the decade.

Cllr Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Culture, Hackney Council
The photos in the Gibson’s collection are a wonderful peek into the everyday lives of Hackney’s past. The exhibition will be a major part of the council’s Black History Month celebrations so we want to find out as much as we can about the people in the photos. If anyone can help, please get in touch with Hackney Museum.
Cllr Jonathan McShane, Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care and Culture, Hackney Council

The forthcoming exhibition at Hackney Museum is part of Hackney Council’s Black History Month programme. Events will also be taking place in Hackney’s libraries and at Hackney Archives. Hackney Museum is particularly keen to hear from people of African, Caribbean and South Asian backgrounds who had their photos taken at Gibson’s photo studio in the 1960s and 1970s.

The entire Gibson's photographic negative collection has generously been donated to Hackney Archives by Kevin Danks.

He said: "The collection illustrates a period of social change in Hackney after the Second World War. In the 1950s almost every shot features white, working class people and by the early 1970s this changes and the diversity we see today is evident. The rightful owner of this collection is Hackney Archives."

A selection of the negatives which comprise the whole collection have already been digitised and can be viewed via flickr. These include a boxing match from 1952, possibly at Shoreditch Town Hall, a 1952 netball team from Nisbet House in Hometon and a Southwold School production of The Wizard of Oz. Visit http://goo.gl/Lj31VM to view more photos from the full collection.

Hackney Museum is currently in the process of scanning and digitising the photographs for the exhibition and can be contacted at Hmuseum@hackney.gov.uk,  020 8356 7302 or on Twitter @hackneymuseum