In Terry Bloomfield’s photographs of Billingsgate Market, we see a world where night has become day, framed by the structure of the market building and containing an internal stage set that is created and destroyed every market session.
Terry was born in 1934 into the world of markets. Both his father and grandfather worked at Billingsgate, and he himself started work in the fish market at 15, leaving to spend three years in the army, and returning with a new interest, photography. The thousands of photographs that comprise his collection form an incredibly important and unique social document detailing the life of the fish market.
This exhibition comes at a time when London’s food markets, for centuries the lifeblood of the city, are anxious about their survival and finding ways to adapt to pressures brought about by new technology, distribution methods and changing consumer demands. Whatever happens next, Terry Bloomfield’s photographs give us a penetrating insight into a time of transition for one of London’s most important and historic institutions.
Curated by Simon Marsh, Judy Ovens and Eithne Neame, in association with Jollytown Editions
