Part 2: Chinese New Year 2012 – People

Did any of you make it to the Chinese New Year festivities on Sunday? If not, there’s photos of the colourful atmosphere in yesterday’s post. Today, my favourite: photos of the people, not necessarily Chinese, but anyone my camera happened to fall upon while walking around! And just for fun, some Chinese proverbs to mull over on a Tuesday morning.

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.

A book tightly shut is but a block of paper.

A child’s life is like a piece of paper on which every person leaves a mark.

A gem is not polished without rubbing, nor a man perfected without trials.

Dig the well before you are thirsty.

Do not remove a fly from your friend’s forehead with a hatchet.

Each generation will reap what the former generation has sown.

Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.

He who asks is a fool for five minutes. He who doesn’t ask remains a fool forever.

He who is drowned is not troubled by the rain.

If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.

If you do not want anyone to know, don’t do it.

Not until just before dawn do people sleep best; not until people get old do they become wise.

Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind.

Teachers open the door. You enter by yourself.

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

To know the road ahead, ask those coming back.

When you drink the water, remember the spring.

When you only have two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one and a lily with the other.

A single day of sub-zero temperature is not enough to create three feet of ice.

The old horse in the stable still yearns to run 1000 miles.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter.

Not only can water float a boat, it can sink it also.

A spark can start a fire that burns the entire prairie.

Only when there is no road left does one finally feel despair.

If one does not plow, there will be no harvest.

Reading ten thousand books is not as useful as travelling ten thousand miles.

Early bird gets the worm.

Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come.

Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.

Part 1: Chinese New Year 2012 – Atmosphere

London always puts on a colourful festive Chinese New Year celebration. Makes for some great photo opportunities. I went down to watch the parade yesterday, eat a steamed chicken bun and soak up the atmosphere. Everywhere you walk you hear the snap snap snap of children throwing snappers at the ground. Rainbow coloured dragons on sticks. Steam rising from street food stalls. Lettuce hanging in doorways to start the year afresh.

Here are a few photos of the decorations and atmosphere:

Tomorrow: Photos of the people I took during Chinese New Year celebrations…stay tuned!

Looking Up in London

My dad told me you always have to look up in London because the architecture is impressive and you never know what you might see up there (although if you look up too much, you’ll miss all those awesome Pablo Delgado pieces!)

This isn’t exactly beautiful architecture, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. I used to walk down Ladbroke Grove to work every day. I finally snapped a photo of these falling bricks. It’s at the very top of a row of flats near Ladbroke Grove Station, easy to miss if you’re not looking for it.

So I decided to scope out the Flickr pool and see what you guys have found whilst looking up in London. Here’s a few photos.

Abstraction by Mayameen Al-Hamoud

Steel by Shando

Funny things these humans rushing around doing nothing… by Graham F Kerr

Hin by Gautier Houba

In Flight by Sabine Thoele

Have you seen anything interesting looking up in London recently?
Add your photos to the Flickr pool.

Stories and Photographs: Homeless London

I may have told you once, the story of a guy who used to sell the Big Issue outside of M&S in Notting Hill. I walked by most days on my lunch break. He always smiled at me, genuinely. Occasionally I bought a magazine. Then one cold December day, he was standing there dressed as Santa, with a big red belly, beard and a floppy hat. Made me smile, the effort of it all, and it stuck with me for a long time. I offered him a jelly baby and he pulled down his beard to pop it in his mouth. We got to talking.

Once in a while I would bring him a smoothie and spend my lunch break sitting there outside the shop or standing under an umbrella with him out there. He told me his life story, the way he suddenly lost everything, found himself on the streets, living in hostels when he could afford to. Not by any fault of his own. Then one day, he invited me for a coffee. We sat in Cafe Nero looking out the window on the first floor, watching the cars and the busses and the people pass through Notting Hill Gate.

I won’t share his story here, but we became friends. And he turned his life around. He no longer sells the Big Issue. He’s in Afghanistan now proud in his uniform.

But London is full of people who have fallen through the cracks, unfortunate souls who wrap themselves in old blankets and suck up the shame of it all. It’s easy to make quick judgments sometimes, to walk by blindly, to feel indifferent. I met another guy once, also in Notting Hill, who used to sit outside reading novels. I used to give him my old ones when I finished, have a chat now and then. He disappeared suddenly, I hope for good reason.

When I met Stik, the street artist who I’m sure most of you know about by now, he told me his story of being homeless and how his art has helped to pull him out of it. He’s turned his life around now as well, thanks to his creativity.

This post isn’t about the politics of homelessness. Only stories and images of Londoners who happen to know what it’s like to touch the bottom.

These photographs were taken by John Kortland. (Interview with John here).

And a final image from Shando.

A note from Shando about the above photo:

“This picture is #19 in my 100 strangers project. Was with some friends shooting around South Bank and stopped to chat to this dude. We chatted about how busy this spot was during the daytime and despite his apparent predicament he even had the cheer to crack a joke about xmas day not being so busy! When I first saw him and thought to approach him for a shot I recalled seeing a documentary on TV where a homeless dude mentioned that the lack of acknowledgement from people passing by as he begged was most disheartening and made him feel sub-human. Share a few words with these people “

If you have a story of someone homeless who has touched your life in some way, leave a story in the comments. I’d love to hear about it.

PS – A little slice of shameless self-promotion – I was interviewed on Girl Habits yesterday!

The Little London Entrepreneur

Happy Friday everyone. What are you up to this weekend? Anything productive? This girl probably is. She’ll likely be standing near Columbia Road with her trays of homemade mini cupcakes like she is in this photo that Where The Art Is captured last weekend.

Believe it or not, this little entrepreneur has possibly been at it for years now. We saw a girl back in 2010 doing the same thing- could be her unless it’s just a big coincidence!