The presentation will be about 1h long with a slideshow of images and a discussion about the project, my experiences and your comments afterwards. Save the date, and I hope to see you all there!
When: Friday, April 23rd @ 4pm & 7pm
Where: Streatham Library
63 Streatham High Road
I have written about my experiences with the over 50's group in my blog entry on February 8th. However, the presentation at the Streatham Society Meeting was no less lively with many of the audience participating eagerly in the discussion afterwards. For me these discussions with the locals are very interesting - they give a great insight into the community. While the audience loved the images, the discussion showed that at the same time they find it challenging to see contemporary Streatham in a positive light.
Nevertheless, I hope that my images with their vibrancy of colours that adorn the shops, and which reflects the road’s ethnic diversity, in combination with the portraits of all the wonderful local people will be at least a starting point to see this area from a different perspective:
A perfect microcosm of multicultural Britain with all its difficulties as well as all its beauty and opportunities.
Steve & Jazz
Mbark
Niesha
Michael
Many of my audience have lived in Streatham for all or most part of their lives, and one lady moved to Streatham as early as 1929 when she was 5 years old. It was interesting and fascinating to see the reaction to my pictures and speak to people who have known Streatham for such a long time. They have seen Streatham change over the years, and have known it with all its grandness of beautiful Victorian shopping arcades, and beautiful buildings such as the Ice Rink or the Astoria Cinema opening their doors with splendid celebrations in the 1930’s.
Much has changed since then- while Streatham recovered after the second world war to being a very busy shopping street in the 1950s a gradual decline started in the 1970s with many people telling me that the closure of the Pratt department store in 1990 had the most significant and negative impact on Streatham.
Change can be very difficult to accept, and Streatham has definitely seen a decline in offers for entertainment & retail, and a lack of redevelopment over the last decades. Most recently, Streatham Baths and the Ice Rink, both buildings from the 1930s, have had structural difficulties due to a lack of investment. However, despite its struggles to return to its former glory I feel that Streatham as we know it today holds an incredible diversity, beauty, and history which deserves to be recognised and cherished in its own right.
George Pratt & Co., Boys Outfitters (opposite of Pratts department store), Streatham High Road c.1899
©SusanneHakuba2010
You can find more old images from Streatham at: http://landmark.lambeth.gov.uk
Contemporary ones you can see at : www.susannehakuba.com
At this time of the year I tend to feel bit nostalgic- the grey in grey of January combined with plenty of rain and still few hours of daylight is not really what I call uplifting.
I miss the Christmas season with all those lights & decorations, Christmas markets with lovely mulled wine, meeting friends for a pre-Xmas drink and having a good excuse to relax with a good book or movie and some biscuits.
When attempting to photograph Christmas decorations on Streatham High Road in December, I found very few shops displaying anything Christmassy in their windows, nor were there many other festive displays or activities along the road.
This reminded me yet again what a multicultural area Streatham has become, and that certain times in the year can mean different things to different people depending on their culture and background. However, as far as I know there were a couple initiatives in 2009 to use empty shop windows for Christmas displays, and at some point I believe, a Christmas market was planned. For various reasons these wonderful ideas unfortunately didn’t materialize for 2009. Hopefully, though, such ideas will be more successful in 2010!
Wishing you all (a wee bit belated) a very happy New Year!
Below some images with christmas decorations taken on Streatham High Road.
Don’t despair I thought to myself and was back at my regular portrait spot on Remembrance Sunday. This time there were at least a few more poppy wearing people out and about but for the first half hour every single one I asked declined to have their portrait taken. So, when I eventually found a person who was happy with me taking their picture I was very relieved and thankful! It is funny but often it is this first person who changes the whole dynamic- suddenly other people agree on having their picture taken as well. This time the same happened, and in the end I had several wonderful portraits of people in Streatham wearing the poppy to remember the sacrifices made by so many in times of war.
Lastly, today I also would like to say a big THANK YOU to everybody who has participated in my project - without you it would not be possible!
I was utterly unaware that there is a 3,180km-long river called “Indus” which originates in the Tibetan plateau and merges into the Arabian Sea near Karachi, Pakistan. In ancient times this river was known as Sindhus river and, hence, one of the provinces along the river was given the name Sindh. Sindh is a prosperous province in the southeast of Pakistan, and historically this province is home to the Sindhis, a socio-ethnic group of people with their own language- Sindhi.
Being Sindhi and living thousands of miles away from his family and cultural roots, the name of his shop represents one of the links to Sultan’s roots and, moreover, it represents a subtle hint to the ethnic diversity of Streatham High Road.
When photographing along SHR, there have always been times in the day when it was quite challenging to get a good shop front picture without a car being in the way. However, now there are some stretches on the High Road where the traffic hardly ever breaks up and taking pictures of some shops and buildings has become extremely difficult and frustrating.
I still think that SHR is more than a traffic-choked drive-thru road but there are days when I am in despair because I just don’t manage to get the shot I need.
However, all this is for a higher good I know- to reduce the leakage of water and to transform SHR to a better place for pedestrians and cyclists . Therefore, I do my best to be understanding and patient in the meantime…and please forgive me for swearing when yet another car was in the way of my perfect shot...
Being from Brazil originally, Thiago has been in London for about a year. He has a degree in history from a Brazilian university and came to London to do a masters in Biblical Archaeology. While improving his English and waiting for the paper work for the course to be completed he, like most of us, needs to earn a living. So, when somebody told him that street cleaners are in short supply that is the job he went for. Hence, Thiago is one of the street cleaners team now, and several days of the week you find him being out there in his uniform, looking after the cleanliness of the High Road, being happy and cheerful.
Streatham High Road has several quite distinct sections one of which has a strong African influence with the majority of people working in the shops here and living in the flats above being from Somalia and Algeria. This stretch of road is characterised by small and independent shops- many with a colourful shop front.
To thank people for their participation in the project I usually take prints back after taking their portrait or after taking pictures of their shops. Doing this I have noticed that particularly in this area of the High Road the shop owners and/or the people working in the shops are very happy and proud of their shop when they look at the pictures I give them - often they keep the print(s) in a visible location in the shop. When taking back pictures there are sometimes also small surprises such as Lal kindly offering a few pieces of fruit from his shop as a sign of appreciation for the prints – a very nice gesture indeed.
People seem to be astonished and surprised and some even paranoid as to what I am doing. While you can read about my predominant reason for doing a project on Streatham High Road in my first blog entry, I also realized at one point that by doing the project on Streatham High Road (SHR) Streatham began to feel much more like my community- a place where I recognise people, say “hello”, smile and have a brief chat with one or the other person. To me this comes as a bit of a surprise in a big city such as London but it shows that in fact the majority of people around us are very approachable and that in a way we are all the same. Hence, coming out of ones shell and engaging with our surroundings no matter where we live is very much worthwhile - it makes our neighbourhood a friendlier and more positive place to be.
Have a look below at some of the wonderful people I have met on SHR!
Isabelle
