#15 CAMERA Book Review: Stuart Freedman - The Englishman and The Eel

A quick look through Stuart Freedman's new photography book entitled The Englishman and The Eel.

Stuart Freedman's The Englishman and the Eel is a long term documentary project examining London's traditional pie, mash and eel shops as enduring centres of working class culture. Published by Dewi Lewis Publishing in 2017, the book documents a network of family run businesses whose origins lie in the East End during the nineteenth century. Rather than attempting to catalogue every surviving shop, Freedman focuses on a selection of establishments that illustrate the social history, craftsmanship and cultural traditions associated with this distinctive aspect of London's food heritage.

Photographed over several years, the work combines portraits of shop owners and customers with observations of interiors, food preparation and the architectural details that characterise many pie and mash shops, including their Victorian tiled walls and traditional counters. Freedman uses these spaces to examine wider themes of memory, identity and urban change, considering how long established institutions continue to survive within a city transformed by redevelopment and gentrification. Rather than presenting a nostalgic account of Cockney culture, The Englishman and the Eel explores how these businesses continue to function as places of community, continuity and shared history within contemporary London.

Stuart Freedman
Dewi Lewis

#stuartfreedman #photobook #photography #pies #mashpotato

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