6 Billion Others

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.

There’s a teaser video of some of the responses:

Little London Lunch Break: New Year Exploration

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.  

And you?

Snowfall Under Street Lamp

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…

Portobello Ponderings

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…

London Art Spot: Przemek Wajerowicz

Photo of Przemek by Sandra Stainberg 

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.

  

Przemek’s Main Website
From the Upper Deck Photoblog 

237 to Shepherd's Bush

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.

For more London Art Spot interviews, click here.

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.   

19 to Battersea Bridge

 Thanks Przemek!

For more London Art Spot interviews, click here.