Documenting life in the city

On Monday we visited the Museum of London, which featured a thought-provoking exhibit on street photography in the city from the 1860s to the present.

Street photographers have met some resistance in London ever since the July 7, 2005 bombings, in part because of fears about national security. (Which is odd considering that CCTV is everywhere in London -- it's predicted that there is one camera for every 14 people). Not to mention that our society is more protective of our children than any previous generation; one veteran photographer predicts this will be the least photographed generation of children in at least 150 years.

As a bit of guerrilla street photographer myself these last few weeks, I really appreciated what the photographers were trying to accomplish and how difficult it can be to accurately capture city life. No photos were allowed in the exhibit, but I'll post a few of my favorites from the catalog here:

• Feeding the Pigeons in Trafalgar Square by Henry Grant (circa 1950-1959).
• General Perspective of Picadilly Circus: 19th Century by Charles A. Wilson (circa 1889-1891).
• Fog at Cambridge Circus by Wolfgang Suschitzky (1935)
• Street Market by Corry Bevington (1960)
• A man walking with umbrella in New Oxford Street by David Gibson (2008)
• Recruiting Sergeants at Westminster by John Thomson (1877)

And my absolute, No. 1 favorite:


Big Ben by Steven McLaren (2007).
Photo courtesy of the Museum of London.

If you want to know more, there's an interesting article about the exhibit from Phaidon.