Photograph, gelatin silver print on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/nigel-henderson-1268" aria-label="More by Nigel Henderson" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Nigel Henderson</a>
Peter Samuels
Gift Eric and Louise Franck London Collection 2017
<p><span>Peter Samuels</span> 1951 belongs to an extensive series of photographs that Nigel Henderson took between 1949 and 1952, when he was living in Bethnal Green, London. Peter Samuels was his neighbours’ son and Henderson took several photographs of him on his own, and of his family as a group. The extensive collection of photographs recording aspects of the working-class communities of London’s East End, to which this portrait belongs, represents Henderson’s first experiments with photography. The inclusion of graffiti and other graphic elements, such as advertising posters, hoardings and signage, is a recurring feature of Henderson’s work. Here, the boy leans against a wall covered with advertisements, some ripped and some obscured by political flyers.</p>
paper print photograph gelatin silver
Peter Samuels
support: 217 × 164 mm
Gift Eric and Louise Franck London Collection 2017
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<p>
<i>Peter Samuels</i> 1951 belongs to an extensive series of photographs that Nigel Henderson took between 1949 and 1952, when he was living in Bethnal Green, London. Peter Samuels was his neighbours’ son and Henderson took several photographs of him on his own, and of his family as a group. The extensive collection of photographs recording aspects of the working-class communities of London’s East End, to which this portrait belongs, represents Henderson’s first experiments with photography. The inclusion of graffiti and other graphic elements, such as advertising posters, hoardings and signage, is a recurring feature of Henderson’s work. Here, the boy leans against a wall covered with advertisements, some ripped and some obscured by political flyers.</p>
<p>Nigel Henderson was one of the founding members of the Independent Group. He was a documentary and experimental photographer and artist. He studied in London at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slade_School_of_Fine_Art%22 \o %22Slade School of Fine Art">Slade School of Fine Art</a> and taught at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_School_of_Art%22 \o %22Central School of Art">Central School of Art</a> with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Froshaug%22 \o %22Anthony Froshaug">Anthony Froshaug</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Wright_(artist)%22 \o %22Edward Wright (artist)">Edward Wright</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Paolozzi%22 \o %22Eduardo Paolozzi">Eduardo Paolozzi</a>. He took part in the exhibition <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_is_Tomorrow%22 \o %22This is Tomorrow"><i>This is Tomorrow</i></a> at London’s Whitechapel Gallery in 1956.</p>
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<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>
<i>Nigel Henderson: Photographs of Bethnal Green 1949–1952</i>, exhibition catalogue, Midland Group, Nottingham 1978.</p>
<p>Helen Delaney<br/>December 2017</p>
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Summary
2024-03-21T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT