Skip to content

Brick Lane Dogs and Sheep

February 21, 2011

Brick Lane is full of the unexpected. The junction of Brick Lane and Quaker Street seems to attract unusual compositions. What is now a clothes shop called ‘Religion’ used to be a coffee shop and before that a pub. The sheep (below) is from Spitalfields farm. The photograph was taken from Quaker Street looking into Brick Lane.

Sheep on Brick Lane

Sheep on Brick Lane & Quaker Street junction, 2002

About twenty years earlier I photographed the boy with the stick (below) from the opposite angle in Brick Lane. He is  standing where the sheep is in the 2002 photograph.

Boy with a stick outside a pub on Brick Lane

Boy with a stick outside a pub on Brick Lane, 1983

Below is a translucent window facing Brick Lane photographed from inside the pub.

Pub window

Brick Lane pub window advertising Trumans Brewery, 1983

The appearance of this man and his dogs on Brick Lane in 2003 excited my attention. After following him for some time on the other side of the road I was able to cross over and get the shot below. The incongruity of it all is what appealed to me.

Man walking dogs on Brick Lane

Man walking dogs on Brick Lane, 2003

At the time I was preparing twenty years of Brick Lane photographs for an exhibition which was launched in the Brick House in Brick Lane. The man and his dogs made it into the show at the last minute and subsequently brought the dogs into the exhibition!

Brick House exhibition of Phil Maxwell photographs, 2003

Opening of 'Brick Lane' at the Brick House, 2003

The dogs (below) had their own private view a week after the launch of the exhibition.

Dogs at the Brick Lane exhibition, 2003

Dogs at the Brick Lane exhibition, 2003

One Response leave one →
  1. lola perrin permalink
    February 21, 2011

    i enjoyed this story phil!

Leave a Reply

Note: You can use basic XHTML in your comments. Your email address will never be published.

Subscribe to this comment feed via RSS