Free exhibition by east London photographer Tom Hunter, co-curated with the V&A East Youth Collective, exploring east London through the V&A's collections and his archive.
Tom Hunter Selects is on at V&A East Museum until Sunday 8 November, in the Why We Make galleries on Level 1. It's a display co-curated by the east London photographer Tom Hunter and the V&A East Youth Collective (2023-24), and it pulls from both the V&A's collections and Hunter's own personal archive. The whole thing centres on east London as his home for more than 40 years, and as the setting, subject, and inspiration for his work.
Hunter started out squatting in a Richmond Road house in Hackney, where he photographed his neighbours with dignity to fight the council's plan to knock their homes down. That early connection to the area runs through the selection: you'll find cut-and-paste graphics by Peter Kennard, Jamie Reid (who did the Sex Pistols), and Gee Vaucher (who worked with Crass), alongside ephemera from local events like the first 'Carnival Against the Nazis' in Victoria Park in 1978, designed by David King, and the M11 Link Road protests of the 1990s. There's also work by photographers Dorothea Lange and Paul Trevor.
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It's part of a wider series called 'X Selects', which each year invites two creative practitioners to put together their own capsule display in the Why We Make galleries at V&A East. This one is Hunter's turn, and it's a look at the neighbourhood that's shaped his career. The museum is at 107 Carpenters Rd, London, E20 2AR, and entry is free. It's open 10:00 to 17:30 daily until 8 November.
