The coldest day in 2016 was spent in Brick Lane again, with a group of enthusiastic photographers shooting ‘street’ with the City Academy Street Photography class. Brick Lane is always a hive of activity, sights and sounds. Lots of dodgy characters too. Here’s an endearing shot of a young girl throwing change at a moody electric guitarist busker, well deserved as it was about 3C and sleeting at the time.
InstantLondon – Dusk on the South Bank
Piccadilly Circus, West End, London
The Reaper is never late. So much death and destruction have turned 2015 into a dire year, especially in the Middle East, and Europe. Let’s hope and pray for a better more peaceful 2016.
Wandered through the streets around Brick Lane again this Saturday with participants from the City Academy street photography class and caught this enigmatic image of a tourist photographing the Charlie Burns mural. Charlie Burns, as I later discovered is a long time resident of Shoreditch, a well-respected gentleman, who had lived here since 1915, and had seen the gradual changes over the years. He established a paper mill business and later ran a boxing club locally. Charlie passed away in 2012, aged 96.
More below :
Mural by Ben Shaw, artist See here
City Academy Photography Classes
At least 50,000 people marched to Downing Street today in London and as many in other European capitals to demand more be done for the refugee crisis facing Europe currently. The atmosphere was festive, with many families and small children taking part in the march from Marble Arch to Parliament Square.
Spent last Sunday photographing with my City Academy Street Photography class in London’s famous East End street, Brick Lane and Columbia Road Flower market. Both streets were heaving with visitors by lunch time and there were many tourists there too armed with their cameras. This area is uniquely British despite the many languages one can hear spoken by the crowds. It has so much vibe, colour, smells, sounds and sights to astound you, A must visit place on any visitor’s itinerary to London.
See also Beyond Retro – Brick Lane 2011
Bar Italia, Soho, London – Usual post-class meet up venue in Soho. I love this bar.
I happened to discover this small and trendy pop-up gallery hosted by A.I. Studio‘s director Anne-Marie Tong who is currently showing Singaporean artist Sarah Choo Jing‘s From Across the Road on Redchurch Street in London’s uber trendy Shoreditch. I was on a 1-day walk’n’ shoot London Street Photography for City Academy, and just finish the intros with my participants at Rich Mix’s studios.
Sarah’s dark and panoramic prints caught my attention from the window. In this exhibition, the artist is exploring themes based on the act of looking, surveillance and voyeurism. She delves in a mixture of photography with over-painting, video and installations and the show is on, till 15 March. More info here.
After lunch, the street photography class visited the exhibition and Sarah provided a brief introduction to the visitors about her works.
Sarah Choo Jing and Anne-Marie Tong of A.I
A.I., 30a Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
11am – 6pm (Mon – Sun)
Nearest tune : Shoreditch High Street, Liverpool Street, Bethnal Green
Thaipusam Today, a short article I posted in 2008 with some black & white images taken in 2002/3 when I first photographed this amazing street event. For those going for the very first time, you will simply be in awe and quite literally don’t know what and where to point your camera. There are so many opportunities to photograph, and fighting your way through the crowds of visitors, devotees, and other fellow photographers seem like a real turn off. However, with a little patience, planning and preparation, you will make it through the day with some inspiring shots.
No doubt, you will want to photograph the young boys and men shaving their heads in submission, devotees showering and offering their prayers by the river, the Kavadi holders, and their in-trance gestures, their bodies adorn with hooks and oranges, and pierced cheeks and tongues, etc. But you have already seen them all before. Move on.
It is so easy to shoot repetitive images but difficult to capture artistic ones. You will want to shoot everything, and often, the barrage of fellow photographers will carry you along with them, all training their lenses at the same subject.
Move away from them and find your pace. Go wander off the main procession on your own and carry simple gear, avoid the crowds and go early. Photograph the preparations, the setting up and the helpers, the cleaners, the fairground operators, the stall holders, these are more interesting than the many typical images of Thaipusam you will have seen.
Most of all, enjoy this amazing festival that is rather unique to Malaysia and Singapore, and some parts of India.
Thaipusam is on February 3rd, 2015.
http://explorenation.blogspot.fr/2008/01/thaipusam-today.html
explorenation.net ~ photography posts, workshops, writings and thoughts by Steven V-L Lee 
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