Section
2: Looking at Britain
These photographs by Nigel Henderson are a selection from the numerous documentary photographs he took of Bethnal Green, London, while living there between 1949 and 1952. Henderson was attracted to the working class culture of the East End of London and his photographs of Bethnal Green focus on the ceremonial of street life (including the Coronation), ephemera and the Surrealism of the post-war city. Henderson was familiar with the work of Humphrey Spender and Julian Trevelyan for Mass-Observation. His work Wig Stall, Petticoat Lane 1952 demonstrates how Henderson was as alert as either Spender or Trevelyan to the occurrence of the uncanny in everyday life.
Henderson’s photographs of the Samuels family, relate to his
wife Judith Henderson's Discover Your Neighbour project, itself similar
to Mass-Observation.