Flow Photographic Gallery presents 25 vintage silver gelatin prints made by the photographer in 1980 shown for the first time in London.
“The Jungle” was the name given to a pub in the North Shields area of Tyneside where locals and visiting ships’ crews would come to drink. The pub was also frequented by photographer members of the legendary Amber Collective. Over 15 sessions Izabela Jedrzejczyk (pronounced ‘yen-jay-chik’), then 27 years old and, herself, a member of the collective, photographed fellow visitors to this notorious hostelry.
The portraits are evidence of a thriving community that mixed easily deriving from Newcastle’s tradition of being a welcoming port to refugees and émigrés over centuries. This vibrant society was enhanced by ships’ crews visiting from distant lands who were drawn to the smoke, lights and ambience of ‘The Jungle’ pub.
Jedrzejczyk made these portraits as the lives of people in the North East were about to undergo upheaval due to the then government’s policy of de-industrialisation of the North East. This exhibition of vintage silver gelatin prints reaffirms the dignity and self possession of a people whose lives would never be the same again.
Izabela Jedrzejczyk : Jungle Portraits
Until February 2022
Flow Photographic Gallery
1010 Harrow Road
London NW10 5NS
