The Anthony Green Photography Archive has been established to preserve a unique

body of work from a unique photographer. The archive consists of approximately 5000

monochrome, 35mm negatives, and 560 original black and white photographic prints.

The archive covers the period from 1967 to 1974, when Green, at the age of 18,

embarked upon, “A frenzy of picture taking akin to a drug addiction”.  This

extraordinary burst of creative energy produced thousands of images, most of which can

be seen here for the first time in more than 40 years.  To have taken so many beautiful

photographs within such a short space of time is a remarkable achievement.

What is even more remarkable is that non of these photographs were ever commissioned

or taken on a paid assignment.  They were taken for the purest of reasons, simply to

create beautiful, thought provoking images.

But Green was no dilettante. He was driven to take photographs. “I was impatient to get

out and shoot...I was searching for drama...for pathos ...but always with an eye on the

geometry”.  This archive ensures that Green’s opus is  saved for the benefit of future

generations of artists, photographers, teachers and historians.

The majority of photographs were taken on the streets of East London and Docklands, at

a time when the area was undergoing huge cultural upheavals.  The one exception is the

extraordinary portfolio “A Sanitarium in Switzerland”.

Towards the end of this torrent of image making, Green paid the inevitable price.  (He

was a perfectionist who often spent 18 hours in the darkroom in the quest for the perfect

print).  Suffering from exhaustion, he was admitted into a private sanitarium in

Switzerland.

But within days of arriving, he was shooting pictures again, “Making lovely shapes by

juxtaposing lunatics”.

These photographs capture a lost world in a state of flux.  Green’s visual approach was an

appropriate foil for the age; dark, grainy, poignant.

In a 1974 interview for Aperture magazine he said, “I look for geometry and emotions in

photographs. I try to put emotion into the emulsion”.

Notes by Dr. Stephen Knowall