Stephen Gill & Timothy Prus
Cloth bound hardback | 27.5 x 23.4 cm | 96 pp | 67 Black and White photographs
Nobody Books & Archive of Modern Conflict | 2014 | 9780957049079
British documentary photographer and artist Stephen Gill (born 1971) presents a collection of found photographs from postwar Hackney, a borough in East London, in the 1950s. Photographer unknown, these high-quality, medium-format images all depict couples kissing on their wedding days, surrounded by overexposed wedding cakes, guests and decadent flower arrangements.
Stephen Gill has worked for many years exploring the culture and environment of Hackney in East London. Some time ago he discovered the work of a lost photographer who had begun to interpret the photo of a kiss in a special and personal way. Kissing can be quite like the reverie in a beautiful forest, it can also be end-of-pier theatre. Our Master of the Hackney Kisses knows how these traits combine. His sensibility transcends the profession of wedding photographer, in each kiss you see the future, the past recedes. Reenactment is a pleasure. - Timothy Prus
