Emanuel Livinoc’s son ‘moved’ by Shoreditch murals

A series of spray-painted murals have been recreated by London-based street artist Abraham O from Paul Trevor’s photographs to honour east London’s history.

His portraits appear on a former Victorian textile warehouse at the corner of Cheshire Street in Shoreditch and document life in the East End.

Among the seven murals is Jewish writer Emanuel Litvinov, whose portrait was completed on what would have been his 110th birthday.

It can be found near 110 Cheshire Street, the area where Litvinov grew up – his youngest son, Aaron, was “moved” when he saw the mural.

Paul Trevor is a British photographer who is renowned for documenting life in the East End of London between the 1970s and 1990s, which can be found in his book In Your Face.

Five of artist Abraham O’s close-up portraits are based on these images taken in the City and Brick Lane.

Jasmine Fisher, creative director of this project, emailed Trevor, who then selected these portraits, having looked at some of Abraham’s work.

Trevor believes the young girl in the fourth mural – based on a 1982 photograph – could still be alive and is asking anyone who may know her to come forward.

Abraham O said the reason he became a street artist is because the art form is “accessible for everybody, for rich [people and] for poor [people]”.

“I like the interaction that I leave with my art to the society,” he added.

He says his focus for his art is on the eyes because they are “the windows to people’s souls”.

Fisher and Abraham aim to create cohesion between people through these murals and “give the local community something that they feel proud of”.

“We’re hoping that this might be the largest urban gallery,” they told BBC London.

“People both use and abuse spray paint. I think a lot of people would associate it [spray paint] with mindless vandalism and graffiti and then there’s Abraham creating these extraordinary portraits using spray paint and hopefully there should be something inspiring there, particularly to the younger community, I would hope,” Ms Fisher said.