Welcome to
Four Corners Archive
Four Corners Archive explores and documents the film and photographic heritage of Four Corners, Half Moon Photography Workshop, and Camerawork Magazine, from 1972–1987.
Four Corners and Half Moon Photography Workshop (later Camerawork) were two innovative cultural organisations, based in East London. Their early work played a major role in the development of the radical film and photographic practice characteristic of the 1970s and early 1980s.
The project brings these unique archival resources into the public realm, making this important contribution to British cultural history widely accessible for the first time.
How to use the archive
You can search our archive in different ways and even save items to your lightbox to email the link for another day.
Use the sidebar to…
|
|
Choose a theme to search for all items and |
|
|
Search by keyword and format |
|
|
View my Lightbox |
|
|
View and filter the timeline |
Download our handy user manual for further functions.
Four Corners Archive is made possible through the generous support of the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.
Discover
Articles
Ron Peck's Nighthawks
Ron Peck’s 1978 film Nighthawks is commonly cited as the first explicitly gay British film, focusing on the life of a homosexual man and his interactions within the gay community. The film is a time-capsule of a particular moment in British queer history, capturing a kind of limbo that followed decriminalisation, but preceded the ravaging effects of the AIDs crisis. This moment has often been portrayed as a high point of sexual freedom and hedonism: a rare time when queer sex would not result in death or imprisonment.
Jeopardy is one thing totally lacking in Nighthawks. This makes it an odd watch in hindsight, so conditioned is the twenty-first century viewer to tales of queer love that end in death or dramatic upset. In contrast, the stakes are fairly low, and Jim’s life and erotic encounters are almost self-consciously banal: after all, the protagonist is a geography teacher.
Latest
Women's History Month Events
Our online talks series is exploring how photography archives can both document the past and inspire the present.
We are back with a new programme for Women's History Month, bringing together a range of brilliant speakers to discuss feminist film and photography.
Featured
Camerawork Magazine - Issue 01
Issue 1: The Politics of Photography Interview - "Problem in the City" Self Publishing
What's In A Number - Take One
Poster for a day of film and video screenings at Four Corners Cinema by and about the Unwaged
This project is dedicated to the fond memory of Ed Barber (1949–2017), an important early member of the Half Moon Photography Workshop and Camerawork magazine, whose energy and enthusiasm helped create this project.