Bethnal Green and Bow gears up for the election

Adam

Posted via email from For posterity

More social media. God help me.

From my photojournalism blog at Frontlineclub.com:

The shortlist for the second edition of the Prix Pictet has been announced, showcasing serious and thought-provoking photography about the state of our planet.

Conceived as a prize to highlight environmental photography, the Prix Pictet has quickly become one of the world’s most presitigious and lucrative photographic prizes.

Photo: Nadav Kander via Ft.com

So I’ve arranged a “private view”: friends, family and fellow Twitterers are all welcome to come down to Chicchi next Wednesday, 15 July, for a relaxed evening of photography, food and (hopefully) some drink.

Seriously, all are welcome, just please try and let me know if you’re likely to make it so I can have a vague idea of the number of gannets about to descend on the buffet.

There’s no obligation to buy my most expensive picture or even to be nice about what’s on display. However, many people were very kind and encouraging as I arranged the exhibition and most are unable to come along during the normal working week.

Hopefully this will allow anyone who wants to come along and have a look. It would be good to put a few faces to a few Twitter-names, too! I should be there from about 5pm until 8pm, with the possibility of retiring to a local pub afterwards.

Venue and map link:

Chicchi, Food, Coffee & Art Lounge 516 Roman Road Bow, E3 5ES, United Kingdom 020 8141 4190

Nearest Tube: Mile End (Central Line) or Bow Road (District Line). No 8 bus from Liverpool Street or Bethnal Green stops 25 metres away on Roman Road.

Fifteen of my photos are on display at the Chicchi art cafe on the Roman Road in Bow, east London, for the next six weeks.

Bow is where I live and is the subject of some of my pictures.  It’s a very mixed neighbourhood with a whole host of different cultures living cheek by jowl in a mish-mash of social housing, new-builds and Georgian townhouses. In other words it’s a bit like London, which is a bit like the world, which is kind of why it’s fitting that my photographs – which show a variety of scenes from a range of diverse countries – should be on display there.

Bow is also right on the doorstep of the ever-growing Olympic 2012 site, which makes it – despite its grubbiness – cool, contemporary and on the up.

Come have a look and see for yourself!

I’ve finally posted a few images of my trip to Mumbai back in March. Time seems to be running away with me this year. All sorts of things are happening, and certain things are being overlooked. Indeed I wasn’t really on a photo trip to Mumbai – a much more personal visit, in fact – and shot for the most part constrained, if that’s the right word, by being alongside my girlfriend the whole time.

Anyway, you can click on the image above to see a selection of my photos from Mumbai, which I’ll add to when I get the chance. They are a mish-mash of styles – some black and white, one or two that I’ve played around with a bit to isolate a particular colour. There’s no rhyme or reason to it; some looked better black and white, while others had so much vibrant colour in them it was a shame to remove it. I do remember thinking more in terms of black and white while shooting in Mumbai than at other times; the place has a certain style right now, it feels very of its time, very fashionable, a place where anything is possible. There is a lack of cynicism on the streets there, and people are unafraid to have a photographer thrust a lens at them. Perhaps that’s why black and white feels like it works there.

That and the hot, high sun, blasting everything into extremes of light and dark.

Steve McCurry is one of my favourite photographers. Famous for his images of Asia, his work is always a pleasure to come back to. His richly-textured collection South Southeast is one of just a handful of photo books to have carved out a space on the small bookcase in our living room. Perhaps more importantly, he captured the iconic photograph of Sharbat Gula (or “Afghan Girl”) which made the cover of National Geographic and made both McCurry and Afghanistan worldwide stars.

Anyway, McCurry, very much a man of the film age, has started a digital-era blog. If I’m honest (and I’m no-one to judge) it’s a comically bad effort. By that I mean it looks awful – straight off a basic WordPress template and with several bits of the pre-fillled text and descriptions left in place. There aren’t even any pictures.

But there are words, wise words, and for that I’ll be checking Steve’s blog regularly for updates.

Take the latest entry, for example, titled simply Becoming a Photographer:

When people ask me how they can become a photographer, I almost never mention cameras, lenses,  or technique.

I say, ‘If you want to be a photographer, first leave home.’ As Paul Theroux, a great writer and friend, further advises, “Go as far as you can. Become a stranger in a strange land. Acquire humility.

Leaving home really means that the photographer (or writer) has to wander, observe, and to paraphrase Theroux, concentrate on people in their landscape. That is what I try to achieve in my pictures.

Anyone who can quote Paul Theroux when offering life advice is just fine by me. And there is hope in the comments, too: an intelligent query or two and a reply from the great McCurry himself.

Perhaps the clunky, lo-fi look of the blog makes the photographer’s point for him: it’s not the medium, it’s the message that’s important.

Fruit sellers plying their trade, Crawford Market, Mumbai, March 2009.

Nikon D700, 50mm 1.4D, 1/125s, f/3.2.

Better viewed LARGE on Black.

From my Frontline Club photojournalism blog: how photographers have found themselves in the middle of the storm over police tactics at London’s G20 protests.

The ever-blurring lines between the “professional” and “amateur” photographer/journalist appears to be confusing the police, who are flailing and flapping much like newspaper owners seeking a revenue model in the internet age.

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