The Lift in Denning Point Commercial Street

It is strange how certain events or even words can raise a memory which can push you to look for something. Yesterday my partner Hazuan Hashim was editing part of our film from ‘Cable Street to Brick Lane’. I was busy looking for suitable stills for a different part of the film and happily listening to an interview Hazuan was reviewing of the Cable Street veteran Max Levitas.

Portrait of Max Levitas, Whietechapel, London 2010

Max himself was reviewing rare film of the police confronting anti fascists with horses and truncheons. Max said something like “the police were trying to move us onto Commercial Street.” For some reason I was prompted to dig out a photo collage I produced around two years ago. The work was basically a photograph of board, with graffiti, protecting a new lift in Denning Point Commercial Street during a refurbishment programme. On the photograph I had positioned the face of a man called Lawrence who is probably nearly the same age as Max.

Photo collage with a lift in Denning Point, Commercial St, London 2010

When I used to print in my darkroom I always ‘guessed’ the time for exposure and would do a ‘test print’ on a piece of paper carrying the image of one of the faces from the negative. Above we see a test print of the face of Lawrence who was destined to star a few years after I took his photograph in our film Sandra.