The twin events of an exhibition and book publication look set to establish the unheralded Bob Mazzer as one of the late Twentieth Century’s best documenters of London life.
You should try and be more productive during your daily commute. You could review some of the previous day’s notes, for instance, or organise your calendar, or draft a couple of important missives; or, like Bob Mazzer, you could use the downtime to practice your art form, all the while compiling an intimate portrait of London’s churning viscera. In the 1980s, Mazzer worked as a porn projectionist. As you can imagine, it wasn’t the most fulfilling vocation. His real passion, one that was ignited on receiving a camera as a Bar Mitzvah gift at the age of thirteen, was photography. It was to become an activity that he would use any spare moment to indulge in: “Every day, I travelled to Kings Cross and back. Coming home late at night, it was like a party and I felt the tube was mine and I was there to take pictures.”
Resurfacing on the Spitalfields Life blog in 2013, Mazzer’s largely unseen photographs were an immediate sensation. Now Spitalfields Life Books are publishing them for the first time in Bob Mazzer Underground, a large-format two hundred page photo book, while London’s Howard Griffin Gallery will host an accompanying exhibition to celebrate the launch. Mazzer’s images, sometimes wan, often funny, always astute, show an innate technical ability as well as that rarest of gifts, a serendipitous eye for what so often goes unseen. London is lucky to have uncovered a native talent that, for several decades, resided right beneath our feet.
Bob Mazzer Underground
By Bob Mazzer
Published by Spitalfields Life Books, £20
spitalfieldslife.com
Underground
Howard Griffin Gallery, London
12 June - 13 July, 2014
howardgriffingallery.com
