Latest news with #PaulTrevor
The Herald Scotland
9 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
'Too important to ignore' - Review: Resistance, Modern Two, Edinburgh
Moreover the images drive to the heart of the themes and concerns which have inspired the London-born artist and film-maker over the decades and which have powered works such as Small Axe, his TV anthology examining the experience of growing up Black in the UK, Hunger, his 2008 film starring Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands, leader of the 1981 hunger strike of Irish Republican prisoners, and Blitz, his 2024 drama about British society in wartime starring Saoirse Ronan as the mother of a bi-racial child. Paul Trevor, Anti racists gather to block route of National Front demonstration, New Cross Road, London, August 1977 (Image: Paul Trevor) The idea of show was to 'explore the idea of resistance within the context of 20th century British history,' says Wallis. It started as a lockdown project between her and McQueen and was first mounted at the Turner Contemporary in February. The Edinburgh run will be only its second UK showing. 'It was four years of really intensive research looking across a whole range of different archives in England, Scotland and Wales, and also dipping into Northern Ireland,' Wallis explains. 'But before that we had to do a lot of political research in terms of mapping 20th century history. Now looking at it, it's very obvious how it connects to issues which are at the heart of what Steve's interested in at the moment – this sense of corrected histories or under-represented histories. You can see that in his Blitz project or his Small Axe films.' The exhibition runs from 1903 to 2003, the year of the massive protests against the UK's participation in a war in Iraq which many viewed as illegal. That cut-off point has another rationale: it avoids the era of the smartphone image and the Instagram reel and instead relies on the work of established documentary photographers, as well as activists embedded in the movements represented, or professionals whose work is less known but equally illuminating. Among the first group are names such as John Deakin, Bauhaus-trained Edith Tudor-Hart (also a Soviet spy), noted landscape photographer Fay Godwin, and Humphrey Spender, brother of poet Stephen Spender. He was a member of the Mass Observation unit, which charted British working class life over three decades from the 1930s. Andrew Testa, Allercombe tree village, on the route of the proposed A30 Honiton Bypass, Devon, December 1996 (Image: Andrew Testa) Among the second group are people such as Associated Press photographer Eddie Worth, who photographed the Battle of Cable Street and later the Normandy landings. Jamaica-born Vanley Burke, who began documenting Black communities in Birmingham in 1967 in an effort to counteract stereotypical beliefs about immigrants. Tish Murtha, one of ten children raised in a Newcastle council estate who documented 'marginalized communities from the inside', in her own words. Or self-taught Paul Trevor, who photographed life in and around London's Brick Lane in the 1970s and 1980s, an era of high racial tensions. His picture of anti-racist demonstrators gathering to block a National Front march in London's New Cross area in 1977 is the Resistance poster image. In the show you will also find our old friend Anonymous, who has captured one of its most powerful images: working class Suffragette Annie Kenney being swarmed by angry-looking men as she is arrested at a march in London in April, 1913. An Oldham cotton worker since the age of 10 – by 13 she was pulling 12-hour shifts – Kenney became a Socialist and a leading light in the Suffragette movement. She would be imprisoned and force fed after going on hunger strikes, requiring her to be carried into Suffragette meetings on a stretcher, and in 1921 wrote a series of articles for The Sunday Post describing her life and experiences. Bringing Resistance more up to date are images of protests against road-building projects (see Andrew Testa's striking 1996 shot of two men literally hugging trees high in a forest in Devon), against overseas wars (Andrew Wiard's 2003 shot of massed crowds protesting the imminent Iraq War) and others dealing with everything from disability rights to trans activism. Along the way, the exhibition demonstrates how, in Wallis's words, 'movements build upon predecessors' tactics while developing new approaches and creating an evolving tradition of resistance.' But though the protests are many and varied, the over-arching story Resistance has to tell is simple enough. 'It's thinking about contemporary rights and freedoms that maybe we take for granted,' says Wallis. In that sense, it is a story too important to ignore. Resistance opens at Modern Two, Edinburgh on Saturday, June 21 (until January 4, 2026)
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Emanuel Livinoc's son 'moved' by Shoreditch murals
A series of spray-painted murals have been recreated by London-based street artist Abraham O from Paul Trevor's photographs to honour east London's portraits appear on a former Victorian textile warehouse at the corner of Cheshire Street in Shoreditch and document life in the East the seven murals is Jewish writer Emanuel Litvinov, whose portrait was completed on what would have been his 110th can be found near 110 Cheshire Street, the area where Litvinov grew up - his youngest son, Aaron, was "moved" when he saw the mural. Paul Trevor is a British photographer who is renowned for documenting life in the East End of London between the 1970s and 1990s, which can be found in his book In Your of artist Abraham O's close-up portraits are based on these images taken in the City and Brick Fisher, creative director of this project, emailed Trevor, who then selected these portraits, having looked at some of Abraham's work. Trevor believes the young girl in the fourth mural - based on a 1982 photograph - could still be alive and is asking anyone who may know her to come forward. 'Largest urban gallery' Abraham O said the reason he became a street artist is because the art form is "accessible for everybody, for rich [people and] for poor [people]". "I like the interaction that I leave with my art to the society," he says his focus for his art is on the eyes because they are "the windows to people's souls".Fisher and Abraham aim to create cohesion between people through these murals and "give the local community something that they feel proud of"."We're hoping that this might be the largest urban gallery," they told BBC London. "People both use and abuse spray paint. I think a lot of people would associate it [spray paint] with mindless vandalism and graffiti and then there's Abraham creating these extraordinary portraits using spray paint and hopefully there should be something inspiring there, particularly to the younger community, I would hope," Ms Fisher said.
