What I’m doing when I photo things is making sense of the world for myself.  With such confusion, often deliberately created,  I feel a strong desire to bear witness. There’s a lovely book called Gratitude by Joseph Kertes about his family’s time in Budapest during the war. It mirrors the experience of my dad’s family in the 1930s. I highly recommend it. Within the book there’s a character who feels compelled to take photos of everything that goes on, often at massive personal risk. 

 

 

The outbreak of the global pandemic in England was very different to Nazi-era central Europe, but for me there were powerful echoes. What I felt viscerally was a grotesquely negligent top leadership in central government (also in some cases local government — the compete closure of Victoria Park by Tower Hamlets council for weeks was totally unnecessary and I’m sure controbuted to the high death toll in the borough given the vital need for exercise in such a poor and built-up part of London) that led to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths as a result of the pandemic. 

 

Cycling around London helped to preserve my sorely tested sanity. The town I grew up in is perhaps the most global of cites historically, so having it almost to myself was awe-inspiring. I have some wonderful shots of the empty town that I think can help tell a vitally important story of what happened to us and what is still being visited upon us by some nasty, cynical politicians. 

 

What I hope to do is create the bones of a story that can illustrate the wounded, wicked and wonderful city I grew up in at the start of the 2020s. 

 

But this site also showcases more human connection through portraits and the creativity of others through the fantastic streetart that we’re blessed with.