Soho Archives at the Photographers’ Gallery
Steer clear, those of an easily corruptible nature. The Soho Archives, the current exhibition at the Photographers' Gallery, features images from the bohemian front line of 1950s and 60s Soho which would have had provincial Britons of the time spluttering into their cornflakes in disgust.
Renowned even today for the sordid and the scandalous, Soho was arguably the birthplace of post-war British cultural revolution. The show features three dips into the archive, which each tell different stories about the area.
'Soho Model' says the name by the side of the street door bell, 1965.
Strip club dressing room Soho London, 1965
The world of strip shows clubs and peep shows is documented by David Hurn who’s lens takes us from the dehumanising podium to the normality of the dressing room.
Also interested in the female nude was Jean Straker. His work, largely studies and portraiture, reflected the era’s conservative sexual mores. In 1951 he founded the Visual Arts Club, ‘for artistes and photographers, amateur and professional, studying the female nude’. Being tried, in 1962, under the 1959 Obscene Publications Act, Straker became a strong opponent of censorship.
All night jazz session at the Cy Laurie Club, Great Windmill Street, 31st March 1956.
The final section displays photographs from The Daily Herald newspaper, which later relaunched as The Sun. The images are shown in their pre-publication form, with notes and cropping guides still intact. To the side, the reverse of the pictures is shown, which gives a beguiling insight into the picture desks of the time. My favourite quotation, which was printed below an image of a jazz band and their audience reads:
“In some well conducted jazz clubs – like this one – there is an atmosphere of healthy exuberance. But in others, jazz and jive combine to produce demoralising, unhealthy excitement.”
You have been warned.
‘Soho Archives: 1950s and 1960s’ is at The Photographers' Gallery, 5 Gt Newport St, Soho, until November 16 2008.
This is the last show at the Gallery’s current site, before their move to new premises on Ramillies Street, near Oxford Circus.
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