Portrait Of Hazuan Hashim
I made this portrait of Hazuan Hashim from a photograph taken in 2002 of him modelling hats for a charity show in London. The starting point for the composition was a scan of his hair which provided the fluid line connecting various parts of the composition. The eye at the top is from a different photograph of Hazuan (when he wasn’t on stage) where the expression was differerent from the main Portrait. So in one image we have different moods creating a psychological landscape suggesting fragments of memory, shifting identities and interior states.
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Exploring Urban Life in Napoli 2025
I’ve always thought that the best way to photograph the streets of Napoli is through its people. In the case of the image above, the man dressed in dark clothing, cigarette in mouth and posture slightly stooped — conveying age and perhaps fatigue — contrasts with the “Corsi di Ballo Swing” poster advertising Lindy Hop, Charleston, and Jazz: all energetic, joyful dance styles associated with youth, rhythm, and vitality.
When I took this photo, I was tired and had just sat down on a bench to rest when I first noticed the poster. Pointing my camera upward, the composition was completed by the man with the cigarette, framed by the doorway.
The man doesn’t look at the poster. He seems detached from the invitation to dance. Now in my 70s, I too feel detached from that same invitation.
The worn wall, carved doorway, posted sign, and textured façade feel integral — not incidental. Napoli’s surfaces are not just background; they hold history. Over time, thousands of people have walked past this façade. History presses closely to every passerby, who in turn has created their own unique juxtaposition against these walls.
In the photograph above the movement of the man is contradicted by the electrified graphic of the traffic light ‘person’ but embelished by the tree and street graffiti.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here
The Transformation of Brick Lane: A Photographic Journey
As a street photographer, I can say with confidence that no place has changed more in my lifetime than Brick Lane. I’ve been photographing it regularly since 1982, watching its character shift year by year.
In this image, taken more than twenty years ago, two figures seem to foreshadow the direction the Lane would take. At the centre, a man bends to lift a box of fruit. He lives nearby and relies on the cluster of independent shops that serve the everyday needs of his family. He represents the local community that once defined the area — rooted, familiar, woven into the fabric of the street.
Behind him walks a woman who appears to be a visitor, perhaps discovering Brick Lane for the first time. She hints at a different future. Two decades on, tourists would come to outnumber locals, and rising prices would increasingly affect what long-term residents could afford.
In that sense, the photograph feels almost prophetic. It quietly anticipates the transformative — and for many, troubling — effects of regeneration on the local community.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here.
Brick Lane: A Visual Journey Through Time
Brick Lane is usually a busy public space but this dignified man, pushing a trolley, is alone. The emptiness of the pavement contributes to a feeling of solitude. He’s surrounded by posters advertising music releases, commercial imagery and consumer-driven city life. For me he symbolises generational continuity within a rapidly changing urban space that’s slowly pushing people on lower incomes out of the area.
The pressure of regeneration has forced many local Bangladeshi run businesses out of Brick Lane. The local community needs genuinely affordable homes and workspaces rather than soulless corporate style developments that push up rents on that drive out independents and threaten the long established Bangladeshi community.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here.
Exploring ‘Woman In Cheshire Street’: A Mixed Media Collage
This layered photomontage or mixed-media collage combines photography, cartographic fragments, and painterly interventions.
On the left side, I wanted to create imagery that suggested waves and the sea. Embedded within this are fragments of maps — suggesting geography, travel and memory.
The fragmented maps and fluid forms on one side deliberately contrast with the solitary human presence on the other. The figure’s obscured features and luminous outline imply both anonymity and universality—representing a displaced person, or an individual caught between territories. The red enclosure is there to symbolize confinement, while the blue map-space suggests the broader world beyond which she may or not have been part of. Who knows? For me the one certainty I have about this woman is that she’s a majestic figure that stands out against everyone else in the Sunday morning market next to Brick Lane.
I photographed her in Cheshere Street East London in 1982. I’ve always regarded my 35mm negatives as precious and this image, this woman (now long dead) is precious to me. I’ve often wondered if life had been good to her; where had she been in her life?
Her figure is a negative with glowing white and dark tones that obscure facial detail to emphasize the mystery of her life.
You can buy a signed copy of my latest photo book here.
