Colin O’Brien: Photographer, Chats Palace, exhibition review: ‘At once realist and lyrical’
O’Brien’s images of children ‘radiate exuberance’. Photograph: Colin O’Brien
For those of us of a certain age, the past is filled with memories of fun on the streets.
This element is largely gone from modern British cities, with the exception of narrowly-delineated ‘play streets’.
Today’s schoolchildren are shepherded warily from place to place, while their older incarnations slouch on the margins of pavements glued to electronic devices.
But for photographer Colin O’Brien, who died in 2016, the streets were to be enjoyed.
This chronicler of open-air East London now has an exhibition of his photos at Chats Palace in Homerton.
The photos show children doing things they have traditionally done, such as enjoying an ice cream. Photograph: Colin O’Brien
At once realist and lyrical, the three dozen images of children collected in this show radiate exuberance.
They depict young people getting up to what they traditionally have done: playing street games, eating ice cream, go-karting, fishing, and even trespassing.
Peter Young of creative group Photochats sees in these photos a portrait of working-class London: “Inquisitive, outward-looking and confident.”
Though a number of the pictures were shot outside the M25 (some as far afield as Stoke-on-Trent), there is a creative consistency in this collection that has a solidly London feel to it.
These kids are not shy of the camera, whatever their colour or age. And their energy reminds us how much of the public realm has been lost to contemporary lifestyles.
Colin O’Brien: Photographer, 1940-2016 runs until 21 December at Chats Palace Arts Centre, 42-44 Brooksby’s Walk, E9 6DF.