Street Walking
One of the joys of living in Whitechapel is that the numerous streets facilitate spontaneous meetings between friends and neighbours. A visit to the market will usually be punctuated by an unexpected conversation with someone you’ve not spoken to for months or even years.
Two women converse on Whitechapel Rd, 1987
Streets are a cities capillaries that bring people and ideas together. A street encounter is more enduring than being ‘poked’ on facebook.
Shopping Mall in Melaka, Malaysia 2008
Towns or cities that evolve around a culture of car travel and shopping malls strip people of an informal means of communication.
Two women converse, Brick Lane 2009
In the UK we take our streets for granted and I berate friends who always travel around in their car and miss the sustainable joys of street walking.
Street conversation, New York 2005
Many countries will build roads and shopping malls before they think of pedestrians. After all pedestrians are people who don’t have a car and a disposable income.
Street talk, Paris 2011
Archways, Bridges and Underground
I’ve always been attracted to subways, bridges and other structures designed to facilitate the passage of people. The extreme lighting conditions of these places often produce silhouettes which can emphasize both the man made structure as well as the people walking through it.
Underpass at Aldgate East, London 1988
Bridge in Central Park, New York 2005
Archway in Marrakech, 2004
Underpass in New York, 2005
Bridge linking Whitechapel Rd and Durward St, Whitechapel 1998
Stephen Watts
I could listen to Stephen Watts reading his poetry for hours. When he writes about the East End I feel he has somehow unlocked my brain, spilled the contents out on the floor and rearranged the memories into a mosaic of urban elegance. I always think of him as ‘the East End poet’. This is simply one aspect of his work as he has supported many poets from outside Europe and endevoured to get their work translated and read by a wider public. His own work has also been translated into other languages.
Stephen Watts reading his poems at the Tate Britain, 2010
Stephen has worked in many schools to introduce children to poetry. For decades he has encouraged other poets and taken his own work to many community events.
Stephen Watts, Whitechapel 2011
He is equally at home reading to an audience of hundreds at the Tate Britain as he is in a field reading his work to visitors to an urban farm.
Stephen Watts, Whitechapel 2011
When I first heard him reading his poetry at a community event many years ago I was intrigued by his appearance and put him on my list of people to photograph!
Stephen Watts, Whitechapel 2011
Stars, Sylhet and Centre Point
I photographed this man (below) staring upwards, from a Rickshaw in Sylhet. I have no idea what he was looking at but I do know he can see the Milky Way at night time which is an altogether more inspiring sight than anything I could look up at in London.
Man in Sylhet Town, Bangladesh 1991
Somehow the gaze of this man reminded me of a time I emerged from the underground at Tottenham Court Road when I was struck by the building Centre Point. A poor substitute to seeing a canopy of stars I still remember light vibrating from the building as I emerged from the artificial light of the underground. In an instant I knew I had to photograph the building just as I knew I had to photograph the man staring upwards in Sylhet Town.
Centre Point, Oxford Street London 1986
Crowds
Crowd at bus stop in Dhaka, 1991
Crowd in Brick Lane, 1999
