A group of friends who have been snapping street scenes in London’s East End going back 50 years are staging a public exhibition showing how the Roman Road has changed in the last half-century.
A ‘Photo Friends’ group running weekly at Bethnal Green’s Four Corners film and photography studio has members aged 50 to mid-80s.
It is led by professional photographer Sarah Ainslie who also teaches pre-digital photography using rolls of film negatives and how to process them into prints with an enlarger.
“Most of the group have lived and worked in Bethnal Green all their lives,” she said. “They’ve seen enormous changes to their neighbourhood over the years.”
One of her group, Ken Claisse, now in his 80s, took photographs in the 1960s using black and white film when he was a Post Office Telephones engineer.
His originals are being displayed alongside ‘same location’ shots he has taken more recently. Ken still lives off the Roman Road, where he grew up.
The pictures of ‘then and now’ the group has taken are on display at Bethnal Green’s Oxford House community centre from tomorrow (Thurs), 3-7pm, then weekdays from Friday 9am-10pm, weekends 10.30am-1pm, until New Year’s Day, entry free.
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