| AdminHistory | David Hoffman was born in 1946. He has worked as an independent photojournalist since the 1970s.
Hoffman's work has covered and exposed the workings of state power, social and racial conflict, poverty, political protest and violence. Much of David's work is closely connected to Tower Hamlets. David moved to the borough from York in 1969 after abandoning a chemistry degree course.
To begin with, Hoffman worked as a van driver and other jobs to support himself. His aim was to take pictures full time. At that time he lived in cheap rented rooms until 1973 and then in squats in the Whitechapel Road area until 1984.
His artistic motivation was to photograph things which seemed either inherently interesting or important in some way. Hoffman's photographs from the 1970s and 1980s of Fieldgate Mansions and of the street markets in and around Brick Lane are of particular interest; these photographs document the lives of incoming Bengali people and their businesses as they were supplanting the last of the area's Jewish tailors and long-standing stallholders who were in the process of moving out.
He later set up his own photolibrary to enable him to freely cover political and other subject matters rather than work to commission.
David Hoffman lives in Bow and is a past vice chairman of the British Photographic Council, and was a founding member of Editorial Photographers UK, the National Union of Journalists London Photographers' Branch and of Photo-Forum London.
Sources
The Guardian, 13 February 2022
David Hoffman: riots, slums, East End | Roman Road People (romanroadlondon.com)
https://thebppa.com/author/davidhoffmanphotos-com/
Personal communication, 26 April 2024
More on David Hoffman and his work can be found at https://www.hoffmanphotos.com |