Street Photography by Tanya: A London Photo Blog

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Football, Gigs & Horses

June 26, 2010

So the World Cup is upon us (in case you hadn’t noticed) which means flags on cars, people bunking off work, and unrealistic hopes and expectations that England might actually win this year (not that I’m being negative – of course I want us to win!).

Came across this fan:

He was reliving his memories of ’66 when England won the World Cup, and explaining the significance of his T-Shirt, which has a print of the front of a magazine from the 70s.

He, like many others, was in Trafalgar Square to watch England’s first match against the USA. However, there was a slight problem. The big screen that was up the day before, had gone.

Whilst the Mayor of London – Boris Johnson (who I did not vote for I’d like to point out) had a ceremony in Trafalgar Square the day before, to celebrate the opening of the games with a large screen, this was taken down the following day. Why? Well, apparently it was only up for South Africa’s first game against Mexico, yet for England’s matches, Boris didn’t give a toss, to put it mildly, and thought it’d attract too many people.

So, Boris flew to South Africa to experience the World Cup first hand, leaving Londoners without a single outdoor screen in central London. Whilst other cities in the country and around the world have public screenings, London has nothing – not in any of the large parks, not in Trafalgar Square – nada. Thanks Boris – what a wonderful Mayor you are. “3rd world” cities have more provisions for their citizens than we do. Let’s hope he fixes up for the Olympic Games, although hopefully by then he won’t be Mayor.

I’m not bitter, honest.

England vs Slovenia in the office:

I’m sure many offices around the country looked like that at 3pm on Wednesday, when England had to win to go through to the second round.

Across the road in Broadgate Circle:

(Broadgate Circle is in the City of London – not in central London, and the only open-air public screen in London which is not maintained by the council. I’m sure Boris would have had this taken down if he had the power to!)

The crowd was mainly full of office workers in suits since the area is in the heart of corporate London.

The only vuvuzela in sight!

We did it! Germany up next..

Shoreditch is an ever evolving hub of street art.

This is by PEN1:

I eventually finished the roll of Ilford Pan 400 that I bought in India but shot in the UK.

A protest opposite Downing Street:

They asked me to take their picture:

The protest was about 17 Sikh men sentenced to death in the UAE. Pamphlets were being handed out they didn’t explain why they were on death row.

Parliament Square:

I went to Blackpool for work. The view from the hotel:

The famous Blackpool tower:

Earlier that evening Blackpool Football Club had paraded through the town in celebration of being promoted to the English Premiership.

Some fans saw my camera and one of the girls got excited and wanted a picture, so I asked her friend if she also wanted to be in it. A guy with them then got aggressive and said to me ‘What the fuck do you want a picture for? You could be a pervert for all we know!”. I said ‘Yeah, I could be – do I look like a pervert? Anyway, no worries.” I then walked off not wanting to provoke him since he was drunk.

I could hear one of the girls telling him not to be so mean and that she wanted a picture. I had a feeling he would call me back, and he did. He said he wanted to be in the picture too. I joked and said ‘are you suuure?’ and he insisted he really wanted a picture:

At that point I couldn’t care less about the image but just thought it was funny how he switched so dramatically.

This girl wanted a picture too:

The perfect city for me would always be by the sea.

Back in London, I shot Matisyahu at The Borderline:

The venue was pretty small, and shooting was quite awkward since there was no designated photo pit. The music was brilliant – it was an acoustic set and included beatboxing, which I didn’t know Matisyahu did until then!