Vintage And Glamour In London's East End

When I travel I am not one for shopping or walking around malls or shops because all those things I have in London. The only time you will catch me there is if there is something unique and out of the ordinary, like say, an aquarium or gold bar atm like Dubai Mall or if I need to hunt for African curios to bring back to family and friends. Those are really the only times I am doing any shopping on trips otherwise my time is spent on exploring places in the city and finding out about its hidden or past history.

One of my favourite spots in London, if it wasn't already obvious by recent post is East London. I have show countless posts not on  food tours, street art tours and a few random shots on my Instagram while walking about. I am always to fascinated to learn something new about the area. Considering the vast number of pictures in most of my posts I am sure its clear that I love photography and just how creative with your camera is only limited by your imagination so its always great to stumble on an inspiring photographer. One such creative was Boris Bennet, who at 22 moved from Poland to London. With dreams of all the glamour of the silver screen inspired by American film he set up a studio in East London in the 1920s. It was such a poor community and mostly populated with Jewish families fleeing persecution in Europe. Soon Boris had transformed himself to be a much loved and sought after wedding portrait photographer. Crowds would queue outside his studio. I just loved reading about his attention to detail and just how he went to such great effort in making the women feel glamorous and the men all gentile in the pressed suits. Most of the people in his photographs were from really poor backgrounds but made the look and feel like superstars in all his photography sessions. The studio Boris worked in is no longer there but his camera can now be seen in a museum in Camden as well as some of his pictures all collected published in a book by Hoxton. Suitably titled "Vintage And Glamour In London's East End" and can be found on Amazon. You can see some of his pictures in this post by the Telegraph.

Walking around Brick Lane and really many parts of East London, the legacy left behind by people like Boris and all the people that flocked here who were dress makers, photographers, sketch artists, jewellers and traders have inspired what you will now see today; a vibrant, colourful, multi-cultural corner of London that's a treat to the eyes and your tastebuds when sampling the amazing food here.

Art, vintage shops, music, food and a heck of a lot more. So going back to my first paragraph, can you blame me for just not really indulging in the art out exploring malls or shope on travels when my backyard has such selection? 

Below are some pictures of what has come of East London and remains of what its history gave both to.

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East London, Brick Lane, Vintage Shops, This Shop Rocks, The Jewish Soup Kitchen

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