Some Xpan Pics from London's Brick Lane

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szekiat

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London's famous Brick Lane is home to a big collection of markets including the more famous Spitafields Market and Columbia Flower Market. Located close to the infamous East End, it is mash of cultures, mainly of black influence. Brick Lane's the place to go for cheap clothes and inde fashion as well as good food. Here are some scans from my first trip there, only a recce mission so all shot with my xpan.

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There's not much seating space so people just sit on any available spot. In this case, it's the emergency exit. Not too sure if health and safety agrees with it though.

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A sure sign that summer's here. People sitting outdoors!

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Police officers standing guard outside a carpark. Wonder if they were taking a break or guarding a VIP's vehicle?

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A stall selling baklava and assorted pastries. Yummy stuff!
 
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Amongst other things, you get people dancing to Bob Marley. It sure is a cultural hodgepot

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More food.. In this case, one of the more popular BBQ stalls. The BBQ burgers were just the best! Pricey though, £3.50 a pop.

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A man selling panoramic photos. I thought it'd be appropriate to shoot a panoramic of him. Perhaps i'll print him a copy one day!

I hope you enjoyed the shots. Please feel free to critique.
 
I really like the spontaneity and composition in the second last one. The steam coming off the grills also contributes to the atmosphere.

May I know what film you used?

Clarence
 
haven't actually used the xpan for landscapes ever. I fell in love with the xpan format when they started releasing films in 16:9 format. Now i just walk the streets seeing the world in 16:9. I also shoot a 21mm and crop it to panaromic but thats a different story.
 
Some really nice shots! Trying to pick two favorites is frustrating and futile... Life is lively there! 🙂

On the 16:9 format, though, that doesn't match the XPan's 24x65mm dimensions... which would come out more like 16:6 or so. You'd have to crop it to about 24x43mm to get 16:9 proportions. In any case I agree it takes an exercise in seeing for the pano framing to appear around one. I've just started working on that myself with a 24x66mm conversion...

Looking forward to your next batch of spontaneous panos!
 
szekiat said:
London's famous Brick Lane is home to a big collection of markets including the more famous Spitafields Market and Columbia Flower Market. Located close to the infamous East End, it is mash of cultures, mainly of black influence.
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I like some of the photos. As said upthread because they are panoramic street photos. So many people use panoramic just for pretty landscapes.

But Brick Lane is one place.

Spitalfields is another, different, place.

And Columbia Road is, yet another, different place.

Do not mix them up. aybe next time you'll find Petticoat Land and Roman Road and so on. And as for 'infamous' east End you are lucky that I don't know where you live mate!.
 
Jon, thanks for the head's up. I followed a tourist map and they were all grouped together. Different places to be sure, but grouped under the common heading of East End Markets (Brick Lane area). I will update my own records accordingly! As to where i stay, its an equally unsavory part of london so come on mate, give me your best (pint that is 🙂 )
 
szekiat said:
its an equally unsavory part of london so come on mate, give me your best (pint that is 🙂 )
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It's the best part of London. Not at all unsavoury. Very safe. Not black people, but southeast Asian people. Mostly from the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. The police officers were there to protect residents from racist attackers. Burgers might not be the food of choice in that area, just for tourists, maybe chicken or lamb would be more usual.

Yes we'll have a beer. And we'll talk about taking bloody expensive cameras to 'deprived' areas and taking the piss out of poor immigrants doing the best they know to make a living.

These people clean your hotel toilet for minimum wage.
 
thanks for all the comments. I'm still very much a tourist to london unfortunately and what i shoot is just what i see visiting the touristy bits. I'd love to show the hidden side but its probably quite well hidden and i'm looking in the wrong areas. Give me time pls....Oh and thanks for the spelling.....
 
Very nice use of the panoramic format. Gives a good feeling of being in the action. Especially #4, 6 & 7.

Also, while Jon was perhaps a bit harsh in his comments I think that there's something to be said for being very careful about being exploitative when looking for rough neighbourhoods and interesting characters to photograph -- just look at all the pictures online of homeless people sleeping on benches! As a wise man once said: "everybody hates a tourist, especially one who thinks it's all such a laugh."

Not saying that this applies to you, szekiat . . . just thinking out loud.
 
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I'll just echo everyone elses comments here and say that the XPan is a great idea for street photography; not many people do it at all, so that makes your pictures stand out. Having said that, you must have handheld all these - the pictures are not very sharp, though perhaps that is an artifact of scanning.

Brick Lane and all the other places you mentioned ARE in the East End of London, and native East Enders are usually very proud of where they come from. 🙂 And those areas have their individual characters, despite being short walks from one another... and are very distinct and should not be lumped together - you should probably throw away that tourist map. 🙂 And what is "unsavoury" to one person is merely "edgy" to someone else, and yet to another person, it might be "vibrant and exciting". To each his/her own. 🙂

I work in the City and often visit Spitalfields and/or Brick Lane for lunch. In my opinion, it is quite far from being unsavoury, or even "edgy"... now how about walking through Streatham or Peckham at 1am... 😉

Jin
 
jrong said:
I work in the City and often visit Spitalfields and/or Brick Lane for lunch. In my opinion, it is quite far from being unsavoury, or even "edgy"... now how about walking through Streatham or Peckham at 1am... 😉
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Too right.
 
szekiat said:
thanks for all the comments. I'm still very much a tourist to london unfortunately and what i shoot is just what i see visiting the touristy bits. I'd love to show the hidden side but its probably quite well hidden and i'm looking in the wrong areas. Give me time pls....Oh and thanks for the spelling.....
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Enjoy a walk and a look. Learn. Your photos were fine.
 
I like the panoramic format quite a bit and you used it well. It's refreshing to see it used for something other than landscapes.
 
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