I was interested to listen to photographer Tom Hunter’s somewhat candid presentation last weekend at the Rhubarb Rhubarb Cultivate seminar held at London College of Communication, where I was also speaking. Hunter graduated from the college in 1994 and has gone on to have a successful career exhibiting at galleries nationally and internationally (including being the first photographer to have an exhibition at the National Gallery, London). He first came to prominence in 1998 after winning the John Kobal Photographic Portrait Award with this picture:

Woman Reading Possession Order, © Tom Hunter, 1997. From the series Persons Unknown.

Hunter is interesting as his work has often concentrated on a very small geographical area, that of his home in East London and particularly Hackney, while his subjects have tended to be members of the community of travellers he knows as neighbours and friends. (It’s worth noting the work of  Stephen Gill whose photographs have also extensively explored the area of Hackney). I’ve not got time to discuss Hunter’s work, instead here are a selection of photographs from various series he’s made in Hackney over the past few years, along with links to some articles and audio interviews.

© Tom Hunter

© Tom Hunter

These two images are from the series Empty Towerblock, which Hunter describes as: “The empty tower block stands as a symbol of a paradigm failure in UK social policy: the Dystopia and ultimate waste of castle-in-the-air housing projects which were scrapped and abandoned. They are all the more poignant a choice for imaging, given that tower blocks were originally meant to be a dream (Utopian) solution to the issue of ‘decent’ housing.”

The Way Home © Tom Hunter, 2000

The Hackney Man © Tom Hunter, 2000

After The Dragon © Tom Hunter, 2000

These last three images are taken from his series, Life and Death in Hackney, which he describes as: “More overtly than other series, these images convey a bleak outlook, but one which is familiar and fair, and broadly resonant with today’s society. Subjects are shown in soporific states, or role-playing ‘death scenes’, and these are located in overgrown fields, wasteland, or graveyards….This assists the ethereal, or ‘other-worldly’, quality to the frames as the wild, untouched-looking country found in Hackney seems apocryphal and ‘dream-like’, despite its contemporary reality.”

Crows Road © Tom Hunter, 2002. From his Swan Song series.

London Fields © Tom Hunter, 2003. From his Swan Song series.

Hunter’s show at the National Gallery, Living in Hell and Other Stories, took as its subject the lives of the ordinary residents of Hackney, as reported in local newspapers. These often startling stories are told in carefully staged photographs derived from Renaissance paintings. You can read an article about the work by Martin Herbert here.

Living in Hell, © Tom Hunter, 2004

For Batter Or Worse © Tom Hunter, 2004

Gangland Execution Boys Find Man’s Body In River © Tom Hunter, 2004

Murder Two Men Wanted © Tom Hunter, 2004

Rat in Bed © Tom Hunter, 2004

You can watch a slideshow and audio tour of the National Gallery show on the Guardian’s website here. While James Lomax discusses the exhibition on his blog here.

Here is an interview with Hunter on ePhotozine.

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