FAVOURITE PLACE ON EARTH

Brick Lane is probably a holy place for all street art lovers. 

Last fall I did a small book with pictures from this area of London as a final assignment in Esthetics- and Media. With the book I also wrote a text about street art and the hate from the unknowing and now, after I’ve been back taking new pictures, I thought that it would fit pretty well here.

This district is well known for its colourful culture, its colourful people and maybe most of all for its colourful buildings. Brick Lane is the definition of street art. It’s easy to get carried away and get enchanted within the brightly coloured alleys covered with impressive paintings in all different kind of shapes. You easily spend a whole day among these artworks and constantly gets dumbfound by the talent of the so called criminals. Street art is, believe it or not, illegal.

With my photos I want to convince the once doubting. Street art, or graffiti, does not need to be something ugly and something that ruins. The paintings are often done anonymous or only signed by something called a tag, a performance name. This does not mean that these artworks are less artistic than paintings hanging in museums signed by well-known artists. A lot of people got the whole idea about street art wrong. Street art is not the words scribbled in the public bathrooms at the central, street art neither is the big letters spray painted on the trains that has been outside for the night. Street art is in fact art. Street art is powerful paintings that rather often carry a strong message, usually political, that affect people around ongoing public debates. With my pictures from Brick Lane I want people to see the beauty in the art that is out there for everyone to see, the art that you do not have to pay any entry to see hanging on a white wall. The annoying scribble we all see in our everyday life is far from the same thing as street art.

I'VE BEEN IN ENGLAND FIVE TIMES

 I must say that after four times in England and not leaving London for a minute I was quite ashamed. I didn’t let myself say “I’ve been in England four times.”, instead I told the truth about how I’d been in London four times. 

A fifth trip to London booked and still a bit ashamed me and my travelling partner decided to take a day away from the capital and visit another city! Said and done, we booked bus tickets to Brighton and got really lucky with the weather. We arrived early to a clear blue sky and were able to walk the almost empty pier before the city woke up.

I do now let myself say that I’ve been in England five times.

BUMPY RIDE

Even though the ride only took about ten minutes it was an experience...

The hotel we stayed at offered a free bus ride back from the east beach with an happy turkish driver who gladly hit the horn every time we passed someone. The so called roads back from the beach were bumpy and the bus lacked seatbelts and closed doors, even though it probably would be more risky to walk back in the heat.

BEHIND THE FAKE DESIGNER BAGS

A fifteen minute ride away from the tourist part of Side, Turkey.

Behind the horrendous amount of fake designer bags and neon coloured tops with either a YSL or Jack Daniels print I found a colourfull farmers market filled with fresh fruit, vegetables and spices.

Since I'm not one for screaming sellers and fake Hollister tops I found this a safe, calm, place while the others in my company fought with the sellers and wasted their money.

While walking around in my own world, taking tons of photos, an adorable old lady offered me a cherry and I got a good price on some dried cranberries.

Time well wasted.