WE ARE LONDON

As abstract a concept as this is, I am a fairly typical Londoner. Like the overwhelming majority of the population I was not born in the capital, this contradiction typifies what it is to live here. The Tube is the best and worst thing ever, for every modern building and goes up an ancient one is preserved, it can be both claustrophobic and open but chief among these contradictions are the crowds. They are everywhere, pressing my 6ft 3 frame into Romanesque arches against the wall of a tube, making it far better risk being run over than to face the curb on Oxford Street but within these groups lie the essential truth of London. But more on that later.

Over the past couple of months I have been working on a project for the Museum of London and TNR Communications. Myself and fellow PA Photographer Matt Crossick were commissioned to think up and shoot a display of 7 images for the museum's foyer representing London. Many ideas were submitted and when Matt came up with the idea of photographing crowds I had my misgivings. Crowds are grey, amorphous, impersonal and not representative of the colour the city has to offer. However, the museum loved the idea and we went ahead. I was wrong (it won’t surprise anyone who knows me to find out), crowds offered something special I had not seen.

So as I gathered with crowds of people throwing paint at Cinnamon Kitchen, trying to watch an eclipse through low cloud, marching against racism and dressed as Wally for ‘The National Literacy Trust fun run, I realized this was London. The crowds were a microcosm of the city as a whole, a mass of people all appearing to look the same and do the same things but on closer inspection each individual and so very different. I love the interplay between subject and camera, what part of their personality can you bring out and capture one on one. Here there were hundreds, each face telling a different story while at the same time showing a sense of community.

Some of my work from the exhibition:

This is the first time my pictures have been printed so big in such a public space so I am pretty excited but more than that I have learnt after 10 years here as a fairly introspective person among 8 million others, that crowds can be a good thing. It is on for a year so definitely go and take a look and once you have maybe next time you feel your blood pressure rising at the site of a hoard of people, take a couple of minutes to look at their faces before you plough through them. www.museumoflondon.org.uk/london-wall/whats-on/exhibitions-displays/we-are-london/