Chris Dorley Brown is a self-taught British documentary photographer who has documented London’s East End throughout his working life. This retrospective book, A History of the East End, produced by French publisher Nouveau Palais, is published in a unique format and contains vintage-tinged images taken between 1987 and 2023.
Chris Dorley Brown found his passion when he began his career in London’s East End in the late 1970s, against a backdrop of highly polarised political conflict and change.
Although he was not born in the area, his family are East End natives it was not until the 1970s that he began to document the social complexities of the area.
The book takes us through the many neighbourhoods of the East End. Starting with the banks of the Thames, we discover the vernacular architecture of the 1980s, its demolition a few years later, and the contemporary architecture that has replaced it. We follow the transformations brought about by the constructions for the 2012 Olympics, then the industrial units, social housing estates and street life of the East End over the years. Finally, the deserted streets of the city during the lockdown, ending on the banks of the Thames.
The book is peppered with a series of essays and texts in which Dorley Brown recounts her career. Her descriptions of the East End are highly visual, drawing on the sights, sounds and cultural landmarks of the area, and touching on gentrification, social history and personal memories.
The book’s unique format allows readers to explore the images in greater depth, while discovering the history of the East End. In the words of Dorley Brown, it is above all ‘a permanent archive of the cycle of shrinkage and expansion, triumph and failure of East London’.
