East End of London

When I started work on the Brentwood Gazette there had been a heavy snowfall, and one of the first assigments I was given was to take my camera out onto the streets to get some photographs. I remember taking one of a group of boys having a snowball fight on the high street, which the paper used on the front page.

I have made photography about life on the streets of England ever since, I enjoy the candid, natural photography approach. On April 23rd 2022 I had great fun leading a Ginko Slow Photobook Street Photography Workshop for some members of the RPS London along the Streets of London. I took them to places where even they as locals said they had never been to before, even though we only walked about 2km around the Brick Lane area. We considered the history of the land, and how the use of it had changed over the centuries. After th event I created a photobook of our collaborative work. I asked the attendees afterwards what they thought, and they all enjoyed the experience of ‘slowing down’ on the streets.

Ginko Street Photography: A walk through nature observing.

I have developed a form of Street photography that goes beyond street photography, and which I call Ginko, which is designed to heighten photographic awareness.

When I ran the workshop in April I travelled in from Peterborough, and went underground to Liverpool Street from Kings Cross, an easy journey. Then a few stops on the bus and I got off and walked to the Espacio Gallery on Bethnal Green Road where the London region of the Royal Photographic Society had an exhibition of 108 images by 108 photographers, ably curated by Judy and David Hicks and their team.

RPS members Hogarth, Fred, David, Michael and Suzanna joined me for the workshop and after a briefing we set off. We turned right and then left into Brick Lane, then after a whils turned left to head to Grimsby Street and then to Weavers Field before returning to the gallery. The walk was about 2km long, but we saw all sorts of life occuring, as the photographs show. I was amazed at how everyone just got on with life, and civilians walked around the photographers. A great day out. The book I refered to above was a Ginko photo book with images from all the photographers complete with haiku poetry inspired by the images