César Manrique’s enduring impact on Lanzarote is impossible to avoid. An artist and architect, he recognised the potential of tourism but also its dangers. It led him to impose strict guidelines on development, aimed at preserving the integrity of the local architecture and community. As a consequence Lanzarote is not blighted by high-rise resorts – which helps to attract tourists beyond the beaches to the island’s interior and its lava seas.
Les murs de Paris encore
A recent trip to Paris in November 2011 encouraged me to re-trace some of the steps I had taken when I first created the series, ‘Les Murs de Paris’. I wanted to see what had changed and what had remained the same over the five years that had passed from my initial walks around the city. Many of the things I photographed in 2006 have long since gone; the wall murals at Abbesses metro station (all nice and white now), the prowling tigers at Ville de L’Ermitage and the cat at rue de cascades – replaced by sperm. But it was nice to see that the tigers in rue des rosiers are still there – though someone has added ‘nature strikes back’ over the original mural.
We are the 99% – Occupy London Stock Exchange
‘We are the 99%’ is the refrain from Wall Street to London, from Oakland to Tel Aviv. A growing chorus of international resistance to the maintenance of the status quo following the impact of the financial crisis on individuals and societies across the developed world. As the 99% suggests the frustration lies with growing income inequality and the fashion for austerity that is eroding the broad social benefits that in many ways are the key to the social compact that binds societies together.
Jerusalem – old city
The old city of Jerusalem is an intense experience with the competing forces of so many gods and religions – all vying for supremacy. The disputed sites, memorials and interpretations create a bizarre overlay on an ancient city of the ghosts of past civilizations. Yet there is also a continuum, such as the ancient Armenian Cathedral, St James, which seems to fuse the Arab and Christian traditions.
Tel Aviv
A recent wedding took le flaneur to Tel Aviv, a city which in many ways embodies the vision of the founders of modern Israel, reflected in its Bauhaus inspired architecture, signalling a modernist drive to create a new urban ideal. The city follows the contours of the coast and was built on the sand dunes to the north of the old port city of Jaffa. Exploring the city le-flaneur walked along the beach to Jaffa – and then north again to the Carmel market and Sheinkin Street, lined with fashion shops.
London series – Harringay Green Lanes food festival
The Green Lanes Food Festival celebrates the diverse mix of communities that live in and around Green Lanes. On 18 September 2011 almost 20,000 people walked down Green Lanes – just one month after the London riots. Green Lanes itself is an ancient London thoroughfare that was originally a cattle route from Hertfordshire to the Smithfield market just outside the city gates.
London series – Kings Cross
Behind the glorious facade of St Pancras station and the newly renovated platforms that deliver us to exotic European destinations lies a post industrial landscape. The district north of St Pancras and KIngs Cross rail stations is an area in re-generation – one of the largest areas of re-development in central London. But also behind these modern facades lies one of the oldest christian sites in England, dating back to the 12th century – the old St Pancras churchyard.
The impossible letters
The impossible letters – how can read the letters of the alphabet in everyday objects, in buildings, on the street? This was the project challenge for a group of photographers who participated in a workshop organised as part of the inaugural London Street Photography Festival. After reviewing the work of the two course conveners – David Gibson and Jesse Marlow (also the winner of the festival’s international award), both members of iN-PUBLIC – and a selection of other street photographers, it was time to wander the streets around Spitalfields and Shoreditch. This is my contribution to the task – followed by some loitering at the Ten Bells afterwards…
London Series – Clerkenwell and Smithfield – Crime, revolutions and executions
Crime, revolutions and executions seems an apt subtitle for Clerkenwell and Smithfield – a district that has housed prisons, acted as a site for public executions and has been the chosen residence of its fair share of revolutionaries over the centuries. Clerkenwell (Clerks Well) and Smithfield (Smooth field) are two ancient districts on the boundaries of the City of London and over the centuries have seen multiple waves of development – from fashionable districts in the 17th century, through industrial revolution and post-war decline to come full circle to trendy districts in the 1990s. An example is the Clerkenwell house of detention – first a prison, later a school and now – luxury flats (though the prison cells remain in the basement).
Memories of the Displaced
The genesis of this project arose out of my first visits to Poland in 2005 and the stark differences I discovered between the Polish Catholic cemeteries and the state of the Jewish cemeteries in Krakow. It was not just the overgrown, cracked and broken tombstones – but also the years of death on many of the tombstones in the Miodowa Street cemetery.
Les Murs de Paris
Walking through Paris from the fashionable 8ème to the rapidly gentrifying old working class districts to the North & North East brings you across a variety of signs and street art on the walls – official and unofficial. This series, collected over several years, also reflects the impermanence of the urban space – murals can be repainted, buildings torn down, districts regenerated and urban improvements created.