Brick Lane, East London | Canon EOS R : RF 35mm f1.8 IS : f/11.0 : 1/100s : ISO 1600
Brick Lane for some time now has earned the reputation of being East London’s epicentre of street curry. It also has also developed a vibrant Sunday market. Part of its appeal is its diverse and interesting mix of people that frequent the area, especially on weekends. For photographers, Brick Lane offers a mix of cool designer stores, a wide multicultural mix of street subjects and interesting architecture – some gentrified, other parts neglected.
Increasingly, Brick Lane is taking on some of the characteristics of Shoreditch, with some stunning examples of graffiti, sitting side-by-side with hand-made posters promoting everything from upcoming raves to designer pop-up fashion boutiques. in addition, the area also boasts an art school and a famous Truman Brewery. There is considerable scope for street photography. Consequently, it is a favourite destination of mine.
This image of a young boy crossing one of Brick Lane’s main intersection is not extraordinary but seemed somehow to capture the spirit of the place. Urban, low-key, informal and on-the-move. The boy in his black hoodie stands out against a totally chaotic backdrop of graffiti and posters and seems intent of reaching wherever he was heading. I caught the image from the opposite side of the road which ensured that the shot was totally candid.
Although as you can see from the RAW file that the shot was fairly colourful and could have worked in colour, I wanted to convert it into black and white and create a high contrast shot using just the available tones captured in the frame. For post-processing, I used Adobe Camera Raw, Photoshop and Silver Effex Pro.
