I received an unusual email request recently from a friend in Australia. He wanted me to hunt down and photograph a piece of graffiti which read “You are not how much money you have in the bank” for a project he was doing on profound graffiti works. I had a street name to work with and that was all.
As luck would have it the sun came out properly for the first time all year on Saturday, so in the late afternoon light I donned my shorts and T-shirt, grabbed my camera (with my 24-70 lens attached) and headed East to Brick Lane and surrounding gritty areas in pursuit of some graf. This is one of the things I love most about photography, it gets you out of the house and forces you to see interesting things and interact with unusual people that you wouldn’t get the chance to see and meet if you’d stayed on the couch. And if you’re after interesting looking people in London I’d suggest East London is second only to Camden in this department.
This first shot was taken on Shoreditch High Street, I was feverishly looking around for some interesting shapes with interesting light bouncing off them when I stumbled upon this fence. I took a few shots of just the fence but they lacked punch, when I deceided to fill half the frame and have a blurred walking figure in the other half I liked the look if it a lot more, the shot had a degree of interest to it. Only problem is I think I was a little close to the first post and it’s not quite pin sharp, and the rest of the shot is intentionally out of focus, so I’ve basically taken a shot with nothing in focus. I guess that makes me arty.
Next up we have my attempt at classic Brick Lane shot. As I was walking down the street towards Brick Lane I spotted the street sign and thought that would make a nice image, the light was good too. Problem was I was too far away so I had to wait till I was closer. As I got a little closer (not yet close enough) a musician with a guitar case stepped right into my frame, a perfect point of interest. I whipped out the camera but was still a bit far from the action to make it work (only had the one lens which only went to 70) so a hastily semi-jogged to get myself in a better spot. Miraculously this guitar carrying muzak creator continued to dawdle right in the very sport I wanted him to for a good 30 seconds more, then when I saw the crazy old guy with dreads approaching on a bike from my right I though all my Christmases had come at once. I waited for the right moment and pulled the trigger, and after a little cropping in Lightroom to get the framing spot on I converted to B & W and proceeded to write about it on my blog.
I frequently treat myself to a Subway sandwich on Sundays (chicken and bacon ranch on Italian herbs and cheese, toasted with cheese), opposite the sandwich factory sits a burned out shell of a building that I always think would make a good photo. My trip back from the Lane took me past this shell so I thought I’d make good on my promise to myself and set up camp on the other side of the road and wait for someone to walk past. A photo of the building alone is ok, but really lacks something, especially when taken from a conventional bang-in-front position, however a photo taken at a slower shutter speed (1/30 of a second) with a member of the public walking past transmorphs an average photo into something far more appealing to the eye. I also thought this lady’s somewhat corporate appearance contrasted nicely against the ruin behind her, I would like to suggest that this is my take on the credit crunch and the impending doom in the global financial markets – but I’ve only just thought of that now so i can’t really claim it as my motivation.
I never was able to find the piece of graffiti I went in search of, but the enjoyment I found from a few hours in the sun with my favourite toy was a much better find.
