Category: photography

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

To see full gallery “Coverage” please click here. The aim of this gallery is to show muslim women in London as individuals in normal, everyday situations, devoid of any political context.

Since the horrific events in France, Nigeria and the Middle East everyone on all sides seem to be baying for blood but I don’t really feel like getting on the hate train…its not a forwards journey and it sure as shit doesn’t lead to solution city.

In London every culture,race and religion are here and everyone brushes shoulders with everyone and just gets on with it…in  London you hate people because they are in your way, not cos of where they are from.  London is the perfect antidote to racism as we are all on top of one another and you see that everyone is the same, just trying to get on with their own shit and get through the day with as minimum aggravation as possible.  Come at me with a smile, you are my friend, come at me with hostility and that makes you a problem, not the colour of your skin or who you pray to.  Who gives a shit? Are you a nice human being or not? That is all that matters.

So it seems like hostile hatred of “those who are not us” is back with a vengeance…mass bigotry returns with fervour..isn’t it all soooo 20th century? Didn’t we just do this?? Jews are leaving Europe in droves in fear for their lives, Germans marching against a religious ethnic minority… This time  its the Muslims but “plus ca change” as the French would say and they should know.  Have we really forgotten so much in so little time? Its barely history and already its repeating itself. Are we really going back to all that crap? As one of the holocaust survivors said in the commeroration of the 75th anniversary: “we do not want our past to become our children’s future”. The dehumanising and demonisation of an entire culture/race/religion is never a good idea as that is always the stepping stone to atrocities. History is there for a reason, lets use it.

Its not really a massive surprise, in-groups and out-groups have formed the basis for all human interaction since the beginning of mankind and can even be traced back to our primate ancestors but you would have thought after 2 million plus years we might have evolved a tiny little bit…but no, it would appear not. We seemingly must despise the different and attack the alien. They actually say if aliens did ever arrive it would be the only thing that could galvanise the populations of the world…if they were looking down at us they wouldn’t see the borders as they actually exist, maybe its worth us all trying to remember that occasionally as we cling so desperately to the way we have been compartmentalised…

We are 97.3% identical to chimpanzees so imagine how similar we all are to each other. Isn’t it time we started seeing the similarities rather than the differences? If this sounds a bit like an airhead Miss World candidate I apologise but I think having beef with entire populations for the actions of a few is way dumber. I mean, do people really believe that there are races  who are genuinely more evil than others? Isn’t it pretty apparent from events that every society has its fair share of psychos?

This should be a war on violent extremists not a specific culture. Do you want to be held accountable for the atrocities committed by people just because you share the same nationality or religion?  There are people who want to kill people and there is everyone else…both parties are present in every population but there are a shitload more of the latter.

Its a shame we can’t put all those wishing to kill in the name of whatever together and just  let them duke it out while the rest of us moderate masses just let them pulverise each other…we need to stop being pulled by the extremes of society who just want to watch the world burn…I made a  (rather rough) film a while back called ‘The General” using a schnauzer to show how we could possibly re-organise the world with this kind of thing in mind, putting all those who are similar together rather than grouping people by race. Please watch here if you want…http://youtu.be/nFpl7Xuuvm0

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

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

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

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

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

As Ja’mie, star of Summer Heights High would say…”Oh my god, that is soooo random!”

This week’s theme is actually an anti-theme as the selection of photographs have nothing in common other than they are all part of the weird sightings I experience wandering around London. It is these anomalies that make life worth living and this city is full of ’em..our brains scour the world around us looking for anything that stands out, something that feels strange, odd, disconcerting…this is our survival instinct kicking in as noticing things that were out of the ordinary would have kept you alive back  in the jungle.

Now that we are predator free we don’t really have to worry quite so much but we still, and will always, be on the alert…Look! Some thing’s trying to kill you..oh, no, its ok, its just a giant Simpsons family sitting in someone’s living room staring at me…nothing to worry about…panic over…right? 

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

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

Winter sunshine is nature’s HD – it makes everything pop out…the light, the shadows, the colours…everything is as crisp as the cold air around you, which is a small consolation as its fookin freezing!

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

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

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

Day 2 of trees that look like twiglets. I did a whole gallery a while back to these oddball alien winter stumps..please click here to view. why am i still taking pictures of them you ask? They’re trees that look like giant twiglets..come on, what’s not to like?

(if you are possibly from a country other than the U.K and have no idea what twiglets are I suggest you look them up, then order some..just ask my cousins Tyler & Oliver…they luuurve them…)

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

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

This week’s set of photographs have all been added to the gallery “Dead in The Mincers” (click here  to view). The subjects that feature in this collection all seem as if they are staring directly at me, almost posing but what is being recorded is actually a fleeting moment of recognition, they have noticed me but are unaware of what I am doing. Each shot would have taken place in a split second without me even stopping. What is recorded is a stolen portrait, unguarded and unposed.

The other fact they have in common is that they were all shot on Portobello Road.

p.s if anyone missed the earlier definition of “dead in the mincers” its old cockney rhyming slang meaning to look someone straight in the eye.

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

The gentlemen on my left featured in an earlier #MYLDN set which focussed on people who wore their discontent on their faces (click here to view) …it would appear he has a partner who compliments him well.

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

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

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

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

The dust has barely settled on the excess of the holidays and already everyone is out in force trying to shed the pounds they’ve added. I have always felt that the xmas industry and the fitness industry are somehow in collusion. You mess em up and we’ll sort em out. You fat ’em, we’ll thin ’em. New years resolutions are exploited by gyms who know that by March at least 2/3rds of  their new members will disappear never to return again.

If you wanted to go against the grain and not feel you were just going through someone else’s hoops I would suggest doing it in reverse next year…get fit while everyone else is getting wasted and then go out while the rest work out. Time to ditch the herd…welcome to 2015!