Chris Schwarz first caught the photography bug as a child and after leaving school set off with his camera to capture the world. On his return, while hitchhiking back to his parents’ house in Maidenhead, he met somebody involved in a fringe theatre company called the Combination, based at Deptford’s Albany arts centre, and soon became its photographer-in-residence.
“It was fast and furious work,” says his former Albany colleague and friend John Turner. “And we all fell in love with the area.” Schwarz stayed in the role for 15 years, creating a huge and historically important body of work documenting this vibrant community: from Albany performers to children in playgrounds, market stallholders to scrap-metal workers. His photographs would be blown up and displayed in shop windows and on tower blocks.
This image captures a procession led by children wearing circus outfits at the annual Deptford festival. “It must have been 1973 or ’74, on Deptford high street,” says Turner. “The procession was going to St Paul’s church – the festival was largely led by Father Diamond – where we’d have a fete in the church grounds. If the kids wanted to let off even more steam they could bounce on some inflatables, as long as they took off their shoes.”
For Turner, the picture sums up Deptford’s happy, multicultural spirit. Schwarz managed to capture such great photos because people really trusted him, he says. “He became a local character in his own right. He wasn’t in any way secretive. He had bright ginger hair and a beard. To set it off, he’d wear green clogs and a blue bib and braces with cameras and cases of film hanging over his shoulder.”
Schwarz went on to publish books and worked for numerous publications including the Guardian and Time Out. He also founded the Galicia Jewish Museum in Kraków.
Kate Tempest chose Schwarz’s work to showcase here because, she says, “looking at his photographs of Deptford in the 70s and 80s tugs at my heart like looking at back-in-the-day pictures of family.
“I’ve always been interested in the history of the area and as it continues to undergo disorienting changes it’s important for me to remember how much has happened on this soil.”
Every Picture: Tells a Story, the Albany’s collection of Chris Schwarz’s Deptford photographs, can by seen at everypicture.thealbany.org.uk
