The Firm

Charlie Kray's wake at The Horn of Plenty, Mile End, London.

The Firm is a searing photographic document of the British organized crime world, which received instant recognition. Over a four-year period Bain Hogg documented different aspects of the underworld, from exile in Tenerife to the broad spectrum of activity in the United Kingdom. Since Brighton Rock in the 1940s, photographers and film directors have been trying to capture the personalities and characteristics of the British urban gangster on film. These are not the faces of criminals who hide behind the facade of respectability or the corruption of political influence. They are, in fact, the real thing, men who hold their head up when challenged, and who seek no false redemption in the face of public vilification. Bain Hogg has captured for the first time in The Firm the weft and warp of these faces to whom violence is common currency and to whom loyalty is above all.