art - Babycakes Romero

14/09/201614/09/2016

#MYLDN (790)

Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

The Strand. One Thursday afternoon. The guy carrying the sign looked angry. It was as if he was somehow annoyed by the statement he was carrying through the streets but felt compelled to share it nonetheless. Traffic swerved to avoid him as he marched down the road which he was seemingly oblivious of, as were the passersby of him, which was slightly odd because he was carrying a 6ft by 4ft giant yellow sign. I think possibly they were just scared and trying to avoid eye contact as his enraged expression insinuated he might blow at any moment. It was as if he thought others should also die ‘for our sins’ and he would gladly help. I didn’t personally feel like making that sacrifice and edged ever so slightly away from him as he past me…

#nophotoweek

13/09/201613/09/2016

#MYLDN (789)

Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Some kid’s plush stuffed bunny toy lay abandoned on a high street pavement in the rain. Its reflection shimmered & distorted on the wet concrete slabs. The drab and dirty rabbit looked forlorn and depressed, as I imagined was its owner without it.

I saw the kid in his room, tears rolling down his face, unable to be placated by parents who may or may not have cared. Was one of them out there on the streets diligently retracing their steps as the other one held their kid tight in their arms or were they in front of the telly, oblivious to their child’s misery? Maybe the kid was a brat and had hurled it onto the street in a fit of rage over some rejected demand? Maybe the rabbit was saved from its curbside fate, rescued by someone who just wanted to give it a good home? That someone wasn’t me by the way. I don’t have the bunny if that’s what you’re wondering. I just stepped over it like all the other passing pedestrians whilst contemplating the possible scenarios leading up to its arrival and departure…some of which I share with you now.

why #nophotoweek? explanation on friday…

12/09/201612/09/2016

#MYLDN (788)

Me without my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Frank’s bar is located at the top of a carpark in Peckham. I went there on a hot summer’s friday night and it was teeming with literally hundreds of people and has one of the most incredible views of London I have seen. And it was proper buzzing. Amazing vibe in a supercool location, although it did take me three trains to get there…which leads me to…

Nowadays when you are in central london at night in places like Soho where the streets were once full of life and are now dead you can’t help but wonder where all the people went and then you come out to a place like this and you go, ahhhh, THIS is where everyone is. Now I understand.

When excessively high rents forced the majority of Londoners out of London a lot got dispersed here there and everywhere but in some places such as Peckham in the South, Walthamstow in the north and Clapton in the East people actually recongregated & built new happening areas, just a lot further out. I grew up in the London suburbs and when I was young your only mission was to claw your way into the middle of the city, get as far in as you can ‘cos that was where all the life was. This seems to have been turned on its head and now everyone (due to financial factors) is heading to the outskirts. Didn’t see that coming…

P.s If you are wondering why this is a drawing and not a photograph, please stay tuned, all will be revealed at the end of the week.

15/07/2016

#MYLDN (772)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Serpents Time-40

To see the full gallery please click here

As posh doos go, The Serpentine pavilion Summer Party its pretty damn posh. A listers, celebs, models, billionaires, all present and correct. The crowd are definitely the “Haves”. This party came soon after the Brexit vote, which in many ways was an angry protest vote from the “Have nots” to this lot. They wanted to make then suffer like they had but looking around this party you could tell that the top echelons of society weren’t even going to break a sweat. They are just going to carry on as normal and will clearly not be affected by the upcoming downturn just as they weren’t really affected by the last economic upheaval. Austerity is just not in their dictionary.

The guests at this party are the international jet set, with a huge European demographic, so I did wonder whether now London would now lose its appeal as the hub of the global rich and they might possibly move on to pastures new? Based on this bash it didn’t seem like they’d be going anywhere but if this city’s focus did move away from satisfying the needs of the elite and became more available and affordable to the 99% that would not be a terrible thing.

I have covered this party for a few years and I always feel like a spy on the inside. All the other photos being taken here are posed shots for paps or selfies. There doesn’t appear to be anyone else documenting this from an anthropological point of view. Am I there to expose the glitz and the indulgence, incongruous & slightly grotesque in these austere times? I guess. Yes. Do I hate these people? No. Not at all. They are not the cause for the inequality in society. They are a product of it. They also put on rather splendid affairs yups? Lashings of champagne, super delish canapés dah-ling and they wear such fabulous outfits yups yups…

It is our government’s duty to address the imbalance and create policies that will invest in the rest, not just cater to the few. Trickle down economics is very much like the war on drugs. It doesn’t work. This needs to be acknowledged and we must set ourselves on a different path. Towards fairness. Towards opportunities for all. And countrywide. Not just in London. We must listen to the grievances that drove the vote to Leave. We cannot just brush them under the carpet again and hope everything will return to normal. It won’t.

In the meantime I am going to carry on hob-nobbing with this lot, soooo clearly the people to be with when it all kicks off. As a wise man once said, shit don’t stick to glitz. Pour me another champs sweetie…

P.s Oh, I almost forgot, just as most of the guests did, the point of this bash is to celebrate the construction of the new Serpentine Pavillion, which this year is designed by The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), (dodgy name, sounds like an investment bank, how appropriate right?) but it is quite beautiful and every way you look at it it looks like a different structure, well worth a visit if you heading to Hyde Park.

14/07/201613/07/2016

#MYLDN (771)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

13/07/2016

#MYLDN (770)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

12/07/201612/07/2016

#MYLDN (769)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

06/05/201612/05/2016

#MYLDNites (44) – Lea Anderson at the V&A

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london nights

this photograph and yesterdays (election special one) were both taken at choreographer Lea Anderson’s recent performance/exhibition at the V&A which showcased a selection of her previous work in conjunction with costume designer Sandy powell and Steve blake who composed the music. Featuring short bursts of productions through the years they were all unified by a unique & arresting vision. Funny, grotesque, surreal, twisted, brilliant and truly beautiful, each one created its own little world of inspired insanity, exploring the vagueness of gender and the demented nature of desire (well, that was my interpretation and I’m running with it)

Performance dance is a little out of my jurisdiction normally but was utterly captivated by these bizarre creations, played by final year students from the london school of contemporary dance. They moved amongst the crowd with unnerving proximity and transported you into an alice in wonderland alternate reality. We, the audience had to shuffle around the space following each performance which erupted spontaneously at different parts of the room. 2 hours went past in the blink of a spotlight.

It was truly mesmerising and it was free and a perfect example of what is great about this city. After yesterday, I wanted to leave this week on a more positive note. I feel very passionately about this city which is why I get riled up. I’ve been watching Daredevil recently and he’s always going on about his city and what it means to him and I kinda feel the same way, although I don’t go out at night and beat up bad guys to a pulp to prove that point. Maybe if I had his super sense skills and his billy club maybe I would, although the costume looks like it might chafe a bit and so I daredevil digress….

However there is something about being part of a giant metropolis that makes you feel you want to defend it. It gets its teeth into you and you feel inextricably bound to it. You feel like it defines you somehow which is why I want London to remain a positive place where everyone, no matter who you are or where you are from, can live here and survive.

I love being part of this giant multicultural ant colony but the worker ants need to be able to live in the colony and not have to commute to the colony. Its just not the same. Have I ended on a more positive note? Hmmm, not sure.

05/05/201606/05/2016

#MYLDNites (42)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london nights

03/05/201603/05/2016

#MYLDNites (40)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london nights

16/07/2015

#MYLDN (583)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

From scuzzy portaloos to slinky jimmy choos…the two social events I topped and tailed could not be more at polar extremes to each other..or could they? Despite the guests of The Summer Party at the Serpentine Pavillion starting the evening with great decorum, elegance and poise, once they got shitfaced on a truck load of expensive plonk their similarity to the Glasto crowd increased ten fold. Once they had been sufficiently lubricated they were dancing their designer socks off. The dancefloor got filled and things got a little messy. It was reassuring and very heartening to know that underneath all the glitz & glamour they just wanted to get wasted and party like anyone else. And they really rocked out. Throwing shapes, shaking their booty, hands in the air like they just didn’t care. It seems the desire to dance under various levels of intoxication apparently traverses all social stratas.

2manydjs who I had seen only days previously banging out tunes to the frenzied crowd from the inside of a giant metallic spider that spat out fire at Arcadia in Glasto (see last weeks pics) were now doing pretty much the same, just to a slightly different demographic. Would these people ever be up to their knees in mud off their chops in a k hole? It seemed unlikely. So were these tippled toffs better or worse than the mashed up munters I had just been with? No. Just different. Strip away the exterior and cliche though it might be, we are all the same underneath. On the dancefloor we are all equal. Now I must go and prepare the rest of my Miss World speech…

15/07/201515/07/2015

#MYLDN (582)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

Someone asked Tony Hadley when was the last time they played on a stage that small. The answer: Never.

The entertainment on offer for the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party was as A list as its party guests: Spandau Ballet, Mark Ronson and 2manydjs. All headliners in their own right. The bill must have been eye-watering although based on everything else at this doo it looks like money is clearly not an issue for the organisers. Art now seems to be synonymous with wealth which I never cease to find ironic & slightly ludicrous as, by its very definition, is something which should exist for its own right and not for its worth. Try telling that to this lot.

At one point Tony Hadley tried to get the crowd to join in a singalong. He had obviously clocked the demographic of his audience and declared in his best estuary accent: “You’re not too posh to sing are ya?” They were. They didn’t.

14/07/2015

#MYLDN (581)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

This week’s photographs are from the Serpentine Pavillion Summer Party which was on just recently. This is an event I have documented in previous years. It is regarded as one of the most prestigious events of London’s socialite scene and is well documented in the press for its A list attendees. I thought it would be an interesting contrast to last week’s Glastonbury shots. The difference between the crowds is relatively simple. In Glasto it doesn’t matter what you wear, what you look like or who you are. At this function, these are the only three things that matter.

To say the guests are ‘dolled up to the nines’ is an understatement. Every posh frock, every designer item, every bespoke suit is top of the range. The women are doing their absolute utmost to outdo each other but it is a tall order, even for the leggy supermodels. Despite having probably spent God knows how long getting ready there is an entire team of make-up staff on hand to do face and hair touch-ups throughout the night. I spent six days in Glasto without a shower and here I am with people who can’t get through an evening without getting re-glammed. Worlds collide.

13/07/2015

#MYLDN (580)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

19/06/201519/06/2015

#MYLDN (569)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

If you want to see full gallery “Street Wall” please click here

This week features a collection of street art from New London, as it is now officially known, well, it isn’t, apart from by me that is…yes, I am trying to make “New London” happen. I just feel the wealthy & prohibitively expensive modern metropolis it now is needs a new name as it has transformed quite so extensively from what it once was…

New London appropriately houses a very new type of graffiti. You are more likely to find corporate sponsored murals than anything generated by illegal sprayers. You can mosey around Shoreditch these days and see great examples of aerosol applied art but its reactionary street edge has been transformed into standard advertising. The only difference is it is on a wall not a billboard. Even their biggest enemies, rebellious youths & anti-establishment anarchists, are eventually adopted by big business…does everyone cave into cash in the end? Is it always that inevitable? Does capitalism always win?

Graffiti art used to be done under the cover of night. Stencils were invented so that spraying could be done quicker to avoid potential capture and arrest. Nowadays it is done in broad daylight as they are hired for their services and no longer need to remain anonymous. In fact, graffiti artists are now actively trying to get noticed so they can hopefully cash in. Gone is the desire to remain a mystery. They actually now leave their website address, as in the one above, so they can get potential work. A friend of mine is a graffiti artist and he now gets paid handsomely by corporate companies to give lessons in street art to their staff.

There is even an estate agent in Notting Hill that has commissioned a huge street art mural on the side of its building (in gallery-see link above), Given the nature of its covert illegal origins this is the equivalent of drug dealers selling their contraband goods in Boots the chemist….umm, I’m looking for the coke dealer. Oh, he’s right there in the corner, over by the deodorants. Its part of the meal deal if you get a wrap of Ketamine and a sandwich with it. Cool, thanks.

Having said all that you do still see some remarkable works of graffiti art in the city. The skills remain, just the intention & context has somewhat changed. I rarely take photographs of street art as always presume someone else has got it covered but this selection caught my eye and reflected this new paradoxical wave of street legal illegal street art.

01/05/2015

#MYLDN (545)

Me and my camera in my home town, my capital city, my london

This week’s theme is entitled “Thru the looking glass”. London is full of weird and wonderful in-your-face window displays with shops and galleries getting excessively creative & occastionally confrontational to get you to look in their establishment.

In the case of the above monstrosity, I would normally say that art is most definitely in the eye of the beholder and any rating of quality is always subjective. I can also, in most cases, see the merit or effort in most things…but this is just friggin hideous!

This is some tosh bit of corporate art in the foyer of some swanky offices that they probably paid a fortune for. But what the hell is it?? Apart from revolting that is. Its like a genetic experiment gone wrong. It was probably intended as a worthy statement on species decline but in fact its just utter pants. I mean, what’s that lump on the floor? Freaky zebra shit? The mind boggles…

20/02/201520/02/2015

#MYFACES (05)

This week’s photographs were all taken of actors before they went into an audition. To see the full gallery please click here.

When you strip someone of everything do you see them as they really are? Without anything extraneous to help our brains make judgement, we are forced to look in the eyes to make an evaluation. The eyes always reveal the most of a person but we don’t always choose to look at them, preferring to make decisions based on superficial details such as clothes,age and size. Take it all away and maybe you have a more honest, more revealing portrait of a person.

19/02/201518/02/2015

Category: art

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#MYLDNites (44) – Lea Anderson at the V&A

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