In Hackney Wick
The other weekend, I spent some time in Hackney Wick, London, looking for what remains of its characteristic buildings. Almost suffocated by housing developments growing like mushrooms, the area still managed, within the space of an hour or two, to introduce new elements into my evolving project.
For some time now, I’ve wanted to integrate people into this series — not as silhouettes, scale figures, or simply a way of animating the frame, but as an integral presence, or even as something that unapologetically disrupts the quiet order of a meticulously composed architectural image.
So when this woman parked her hire bike directly in my frame, completely unaware of my presence, or when the couple walked out from the mural towards me, I took the photographs before I had even fully finalised the compositions.
I’m rather happy with the results. Somehow, they bring together parallel worlds — those of strangers, buildings, murals, and fleeting encounters — under the blinding summer sun.
