Somewhere between 30-40% of people living in London were born outside the UK. That’s a pretty significant amount, and, as most people will probably agree, the diversity of this city is one of its greatest assets.
In the spirit of that, even though it’s not about London specifically, I wanted to share this project called 6 Billion Others. It’s an incredible endeavour undertaken by French photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand and a team who travelled around the world interviewing people from all walks of life to find their answers to some fundamental questions. Over four years, in 75 countries, they filmed 5,000 interviews that capture intimacy and authenticity. Each person was asked 40 questions.
Living in a city where people come from so many different backgrounds – any of these people could live in London – I am always drawn to these explorations of culture, values, ideas.
I’ve been reading the book version of 6 Billion Others, split up by question with photographs and a select few answers.
On one page, an elderly Nepalese woman named Putali with a dark wrinkled forehead and a hoop through her nose answers the question, “What were your childhood dreams?” She replies, “I would have loved to go abroad. Living here, we just live to eat. And time passes by. I had this dream, but nobody came to take me away. That’s it.” Answers like that, they make you think about your own life.
Yona, a woman with dark curls and a beaming smile, lives in Canada. Her answer to “What does love mean to you?” was one of my favourites. She said, “Each one of us is like our own planet, our own country, with our own rules and history, and I think that what allows us to fall in love is when we meet someone who wants to explore our planet, and wants to learn how, in spite of its complexity, to climb to the top of its mountains and go to the bottom of the darkest caverns, and who will be able to appreciate the beauty of all the nooks and crannies that exist inside of each of us.”
My thoughts keep coming back to this city, that anyone of these faces could be one of the anonymous ones I passed in the street today.
Little London Lunch Break posts will appear every Wednesday around lunch time. I’ll ask a questions or start a discussion, give my answer and leave the comments open for the rest of you the same when you have a minute or two. If you would like to suggest a question, please email me at littlelondonobservationist@hotmail.co.uk.
Question: Which part of London would you like to explore for the first time in the new year?
My Answer: I think I’ll head northeast to Islington and check out Chapel Market, catch a few bands in the Union Chapel which has been recommended to me by a few people. While I’m over there, I’ll have a stroll along the New River Walk.
I’ve heard good things about the Horniman Museum near Forest Hill train station.
After walking past it so many times, I’d like to go see a film at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road.
Shakespeare in the Park is on the list for Summer and if I can make it before closing, in January I’m going to try ice skating at the Natural History Museum.
Despite being in London for three years, I still haven’t actually been up in the London Eye. Worth it?
Also on the list are loads of delicious sounding restaurants with food from all over the world.
Watching snow flakes flit and twirl under a street lamp in Ealing Broadway while walking home one night last week. Coming from a city where everyone has 4-wheel drive and snow scrapers in the back of their cars, it is always amusing to watch London function in snow (or try to). People were also walking around with umbrellas like it was rain…
Tacked up on the wall at the edge of the antique market on Portobello Road are bits of poetry and other musings. Here’s a snap. If you’ve got some “sexy balding” going on, enjoy eskimo kisses and find yourself making cute faces in public, you could try tacking up your number and see what happens…
Equipped with his camera, Przemek climbs the stairs to the upper deck on one of London’s iconic double decker busses, takes a seat by the window and waits for a moment of inspiration. With hundreds of bus routes in this bustling city, he has plenty of options. Looking down, he has only a second for a scene to speak to him. If he catches it in time, which he often does, he captures the idiosyncrasies of ordinary people, normalcy and oddity of daily life in a large city, our diversity, work habits, all those things we do when we think no one is watching…
63 to King's Cross
Przemek has turned his photography of daily London life into a project called From the Upper Deck and continues to post images to his blog daily. When he has enough, he plans to publish a book. He’s agreed to share some of his images here for this week’s London Art Spot and answer a few questions about the goals and challenges of his ongoing infatuation with the view from London’s upper decks.
LLO: I hear you’re aiming to ride every bus route in London to take photos from the upper deck. That’s a lot of buses. How many have you done so far?
PW: I am not really sure how many. I think I have done more than a hundred, but I don’t have exact number. I know that there are more than 200 bus routes in total, so it will take some time. I take some notes and the route is recorded with each photo anyway but I don’t have the exact number. It’s a bit messy, I know, but it works for me.
28 to Wandsworth
LLO: What sort of camera do you have?
PW: Digital SLR camera with 50mm fixed lens.
41 to Tottenham Hale
LLO: What is the goal of From the Upper Deck?
PW: The goal? The goal is simple and that is just to capture ordinary everyday life in London in the early 21st century.
188 to North Greenwich
LLO: Most of your images are well composed despite the obvious limitations. Colours match up, people are in motion and contradictions that make an interesting photograph are in place. What do you look for in a scene before you snap a photo?
PW: There are lot of factors – colours, sunlight, people, interactions between people that draw my attention. To be honest, the impulses that make me press the button are very random and often unpredictable.
9 to Aldwych
LLO: Taking photos of strangers through bus windows with limited time to capture a scene must pose a few challenges. What issues have you dealt with and how do you overcome them?
PW: Well, the main difficulty is that you don’t have control of your position. In other words, you can’t stop and wait for the situation to unfold. The situation is either there and ready to be snapped, or it’s not. So it can be frustrating sometimes.
69 to Canning Town
LLO: How long have you been working on this project so far?
PW: I have been taking photos from buses for about four years. I started on my daily routes to and form work just for fun and without any project idea in mind. It evolved into a project about two years ago when I started taking some remote routes and going to, for me, some really esoteric and obscure parts of London.
Listen to a Londoner. This is a weekly post where people who live (or have lived for a while) in London answer a few questions about the Big Smoke. If you fit the bill and want to be interviewed, give me a shout at littlelondonobservationist@hotmail.co.uk. Always looking for new victims volunteers….
Sudakshina Mukherjee, 26
Sudakshina was born and raised in Hounslow, West London, till the age of 12 and she then moved to Kolkata, India, for further schooling. She then came back to London and graduated with a BA (2:1) Hons in New Media Journalism with Film & TV Studies from Thames Valley University, in 2005.
Since then, she has worked in several jobs in the print and online media, finance and education sectors.
LLO: How long have you lived in London? SM: Pretty much most of my life, aside from my high school years.
LLO: Where are you (or your family) from originally if not London?
SM: I was born here, but my parents are originally from Kolkata (Calcutta), India.
LLO: Best thing about London?
SM: It’s so cosmopolitan and the fact that there are branches of shops and banks in almost every town, which is very convenient!
LLO: Worst thing about London?
SM: The mismanagement of overcrowding.
LLO: North, south, east or west?
SM: Well, I’m a Hounslow girl, so west London is my cosy home, but I also love central London, obviously!
LLO: Best shop?
SM: Westfield Shopping Centre. It’s done wonders to London’s brand image, I feel.
LLO: 2012 Olympics – stay or go?
SM: Stay! It’s a big deal and it’ll work out to be good for us!
LLO: How do you spend your time on the tube?
SM: Bopping along to my iPod and reading the free newspapers.
LLO: Best London magazine, newspaper or website?
SM:London Lite. I miss it very much and sad it had to close down.
LLO: Best time of year in London?
SM: Spring time. We all start smiling broadly and the weather does make us feel good, even if life isn’t going that well.
LLO: Boris is……
SM: Funny. I really considered sending him a comb for his messy hair this Christmas. He has his heart in the right place, but sometimes makes a boo-boo and goes all weird.
I’m always attracted to books set in London (White Teeth by Zadie Smith, Geoff Ryman’s 253, etc). London is a familiar place but because of the incredible diversity, there are still many unfamiliar aspects. I’m also very interested in British Asian culture, so when I came across Londonstani by Gautam Malkani, I knew it would either love it or hate it. I loved it. Seeing as this blog is about anything London, thought I’d share. . Gautam is a journalist for the Financial Times (one of those lucky ones who stuck his foot in their door as a graduate trainee and weaselled his way to full time staff status ever since). Londonstani is his first novel (published 3-4 years ago now), and quite an accomplishment at that because it leaves your mind churning at the end with a sly little twist that changes the way you think about the entire story. (No worries – I won’t give that away!) .
It’s set in Hounslow and follows the Brit-Asian rudeboy scene through the eyes of the slightly-awkward Jas who tries to fit in with the hardcore bad boys but doesn’t quite cut it. The entire book is written in rudeboy slang – not an easy task, but it certainly sets it apart. Gautam even wrote a style guide to keep it straight while he was writing. . He explains the title on his website: “’Londonstani’ was a self-referential term that basically meant I’m proud to be a Londoner because it’s a place where I can be both British and Asian and still feel 100 per cent like I belong – like I’m a native. It’s like desi slang for the word “Londoner”; it means the same thing.” . Overall, it’s a brilliant exploration of identity, primarily, also religion, cross-cultural relationships, subcultures, family life, machismo and the pressure to either fit in or rebel against mainstream society. It hits a lot of discussion-worthy points – What is mainstream culture anyway? What does it mean to be a second or third generation Asian in London? What happens when you mix cultures to create new relationships or a new identity? .
Gautam wrote Londonstani after researching the subject of Brit-Asian culture for his university dissertation and found himself with a lot more material and interest than he originally expected. He said it began with thinking “about the Brit-Asian rudeboy scene and the rejection of our parents’ efforts to integrate with mainstream Britain – leading to the development of our own brand of Britishness.” .
It’s a look at one way to define “Britishness” and more proof that the definition is constantly evolving and expanding.
Little London Lunch Break posts will appear every Wednesday around lunch time. I’ll ask a questions or start a discussion, give my answer and leave the comments open for the rest of you the same when you have a minute or two. If you would like to suggest a question, please email me at littlelondonobservationist@hotmail.co.uk.
Question:What does “home” mean to you?
My Answer:
I’m home in New York for Christmas, so I thought it would be fitting to start with the topic of home because the meaning has changed for me since I moved to London.
In a city of immigrants, home needs to become more than a physical place for a lot of people. Instead, it becomes an idea or a feeling. It is easy to feel like you belong to two places and nowhere at the same time when you live in a country other than the place where you grew up.
For me, the feeling of “home” is in laughter among friends, a glass of red wine over good conversation, in waking up in the arms of someone I love on a Saturday morning, wrapping cold hands around a warm mug of tea. It comes in memories, like the sound of songs from my childhood, the smell of rain on a summer’s day, reminiscing over old photographs, watching the odd bit of London snow blanket the ground.
It’s about finding a place in the city – a certain bench in a certain park, a specific corner of a bookshop, a dock along the river Thames – somewhere that is yours as much as anyone else’s but somewhere you can always return to clear your mind.
Home has become something I carry with me rather than the house I return to every night.
There are certain artists whose work is always instantly recognizable and Portuguese artist Vhils is one of them. I saw this one behind Brick Lane and Hanbury Street, near the back entrance to the Sunday Up Market (which, by the way, is brilliant if you haven’t been. More on that in a later entry…)
In an interview with Michael Slenske, Vhils explained his art of scratching into the surface: “It’s a process of trying to reflect upon our own layers. Its aim is not to come up with solutions but to conduct research, to confront systems, materials, processes, elements, to create friction and confront the individual with the process, with the system: an active critical process that stems from the same environment upon which it aims to reflect.”
Photo of Przemek by Sandra Stainberg 
Sudakshina Mukherjee, 26
