Meeting of Styles Graffiti Festival, Bethnal Green/Shoreditch, London
5th June, 2009
Meeting of Styles is an international graffiti event taking place in a number of cities around the world. The London event is being held just off Brick Lane in East London, in an area well-known for its graffiti-clad walls (as those of you who follow my blog will know!).
It started today and is featuring artists from around the globe, who are adourning the walls of Sclater Street and Bacon Street over 2 days.
If you’re not interested in graffiti then look away now, although I personally think some of these are simply stunning works.
I went along during my lunch break when most of the artists had only just started. So I went back after work and have posted before and after pictures that show the progression of the pieces.
Daze:
Not sure why there’s a warehouse-type building full of sheets, but then this part of London really is the epitome of randomness.
Each artist had a section of the wall dedicated to them:
This must be the oldest man I have seen use a digital SLR – impressive! Not that I’m suggesting the elderly are incapable of using SLRs, but well, it’s just not a common sight really! I’d love to see his pictures. : )
The only female artist I spotted:
Nash and Does:
Very friendly guys, then again, everyone was in pretty high spirits.
I can’t wait to see the above once it’s complete.
There were various DJs and the atmosphere was pretty fab, despite the drab weather.
So that’s it. I can only imagine how amazing the area will look once it’s complete this weekend, and it will probably pick up a lot more over next day. I wish I remembered all the names of the artists, but you can find a list here – http://endofthelinepresentsmeetingofstyles.blogspot.com/
I learnt 2 things. 1) The East End of London continues to be the best place for street art. 2) It’s hard to think of original ways of taking pictures of graffiti artists working :P
Some shots of Brick Lane that I took on the way there and back:
This ‘stall’ was great. They had a box of random developed film from the 60s and 70s:
I love stuff like that, so I had a rummage through and picked a few, and yep, they were cheap as fuck!
Tinchy Strider (in the middle) was playing a random gig with the girl from Sugababes (Amelle) and a guitarist (not sure who he is).
I had absolutely no idea who Tinchy Strider was and neither did the guy next to me, but then an excited girl waiting for his autograph told me he’s been number 1 in the UK Singles Chart for 3 weeks, with a song called, erm, Number 1. At that point I kind of felt old. I mean, I can’t remember the last time I even knew what the number 1 song was.. oh well!
As always, cheers for looking : )
(A thank you to Jessel who told me about the graffiti festival!)
Mumbai – March 2009
Back to Mumbai.
Word of warning if you’re going to buy from one of these book sellers – the books are photocopies and they try to sell them for the same price as those in book stores, but because they pack them up, you don’t realise this until you’ve bought one! I speak from experience from a couple of years ago. Still, there were no missing pages.
I’ve done two series of window shots previously:
Shooting from the Inside I
Shooting from the Inside II
I could probably do a third.
Scarf heaven. You can haggle these down to less than £1 each. Bargain! I’m going to do a blog at some point comparing prices in Mumbai to those in London, to illustrate just how ridiculous the price gap is.
I took this at the famous Pani Puri Centre in Elco market:
Pani puri is fairly popular savoury snack made up of the above (hollow crispy puri) filled with chick peas, tamarind, onions, potato, chilli and chaat masala. Mmmm.
I always get earrings from this guy and he always seems to remember which ones I buy and therefore don’t already have.
These basket weavers sit on the roadside all day and even through the night, weaving away all shapes and sizes. I asked them to make me a couple : )
A memorial at St. Michael’s Church in Mahim:
I took some pictures in the church and went outside, leaving the camera setting at ISO 1600, which I always seem to do! I then shot some graffiti at 1600 which was totally screwed up and I was unable to mend the images, so I converted them to black/white as the damage is less noticeable!
Example of said damage here. See what I mean? Horrid.
A typical barber’s:
I love how people set up shop wherever they want. It just adds to unpredictable and spontaneous nature of Mumbai.
Just one of the many many beggars that fill the streets:
I love that she smiled.
The Haji Ali is a mosque on an island in the middle of the sea, which this road leads to. You can just about see the mosque in the background:
You can only access the road when the tide is low, otherwise the sea engulfs the area, leaving the island cut off.
This girl was following me and mimicking taking pictures with a little piece of metal she had. It was really cute.
He asked me to take a picture of him:
You can read more about the Haji Ali from an old blog – http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=17 – I didn’t take too many pictures this time.
On the path to and from the mosque, beggars line the street, many of them without limbs.
I wasn’t going to post this image:
I just think it lacks soul.. I don’t know. Something about it seems crude to me, but this is the reality I guess.
There are also quite a few blind people who walk up and down the road, in the hope they’ll collect some change.
These men lie in a circle singing religious songs continuously throughout the day. Quite amazing really. It’s strange how sights like the above are so alien to those in the West, yet are just part of the daily sights in this city. Most people don’t even look at them twice.
More of Mumbai in the next entry, plus.. monkeys!
Thanks for looking! 
