Unexpected In Brick Lane
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 & 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, 1983
Below is a translucent window facing Brick Lane photographed from inside the pub.
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, 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!
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
Brick Lane 2003
Brick Lane c.1998
Brick Lane 1999
Brick Lane 1999
Brick Lane launderette 1983
Brick Lane 2016
Brick Lane 1984
Very good and very telling photos and text. Oh and I liked the dogs’ private view!