Bohemians4Soho - not over until it is over.

I kept refreshing hashtag #Bohemians4Soho on twitter last Monday waiting for updates as the protestors were still occupying the ex-12 bar. The #Bohemians4Soho had a community meeting that evening and "Frank Turner playing at 12 bar at 8pm" came up as a tweet.

When we got down to the venue, there was a buzz. People were walking into the building freely and musicians playing at the front door of the 12 bar. It was quite different compared to what we experienced the day before. Their barricade was pushed to the side, the lights were on and a somewhat lighter atmosphere filled the air.

The community meeting was held in one of the rooms within 12 bar and it was packed. Phoenix (@pheonixrainbow) was one of the activists leading the discussion in the room. On the other side, Dan was being interviewed and 12 bar seemed alive again on a Monday night. A few familiar faces like Mortecai played a big part in the discussions and there were several new faces who were keen to help out on the #savesoho front.

Mortecai

Danny, after encouraging the crowd to go on social media to tweet #savetinpanalley

Pheonix being filmed

The donation box being passed around to help the squatters

The night ended with Frank Turner playing and I overheard a woman ranting outside the crowded room going on about how it was "just f****** hipsters here to watch some famous musician and none of them cared about their cause..."

It was a matter of time before the riot police kicked the occupiers out and last Friday, it happened.

#Bohemians4Soho

The day started out at the National Portrait Gallery, partly for a small university assignment as well as checking out the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize exhibition. After our visit, Ming Yang and I walked about to try and photograph anything that caught our eye. Nothing quite happened until after lunch when we walked down Denmark Street in Soho. It was a chance encounter at the front of the ex-12 bar and one of the guys, Dan from #Bohemians4Soho came up to say hi and we started chatting about what they were up to. Mordecai, another activist from the group told us about their protest against the gentrification of Soho by the big corporation, Consolidated Development, the owner of the building. Apparently, they have been squatting in the building for about two weeks. There is a Bohemians Manifesto online which tells you about what they stand for.

The group was kind enough to allow us into the Grade II listed building to check it out. Musicians have been invited to play once again in the venue. You can check out some of their videos here and on twitter, check out hashtags #Bohemians4Soho, #SaveDenmarkStreet, #SaveTinPanAlley and #SaveSoho.

If you have been passing by Tottenham Court Road station, you would have noticed the massive changes around the area.

Guardian's report about the protest here.

A trip to Ridley Road Market

About a week ago, university life started again for me. This time in London. The last time I saw the back of university, it was in Adelaide, Australia and almost a decade ago. For those who do not know, I am studying a postgraduate diploma in photography portfolio development at London College of Communication. Towards the end of 2014, I decided that I was going to spend the new year trying to build a body of work for my portfolio. The choice was between doing it independently whilst having a full-time job or to head to university with a structured outline. There was a lot of back and forth before I came to my conclusion and it was not easy.

I hope that you will continue to follow me on my journey in photography and as part of my university work, my tutor has decided that I should keep this wordpress blog to document my progress. Meanwhile, I will continue to create more images and redevelop my website in the background.

Over the weekend, I decided to organise a photowalk for my fellow classmates to Ridley Road Market followed by a visit to Doomed Gallery to check out 'New Japanese Photography'. It was a fun day getting to know everyone a little bit better and showing some of the international classmates a new part of London where they have not visited.

Here are some of my images from the day. Tried a couple of times to get portraits of some vendors but was not successful. However, I managed to find a stand where they were selling curtains and decided to hang around to wait for an opportunity. I took about 16 shots, moving around the stand and managed to capture the last one which was my favourite of the day. What do you think?

Image of the day

Inspired by nature...

Yesterday, I headed to Sebastiao Salgado's GENESIS exhibition at the National History Museum. It was the last weekend of the exhibition and the tickets were sold out. Two of my colleagues raved about it and I knew I had to see it. It was so inspiring to see how he captured nature and culture through black and white photos. What you see here are some of the photos I took in 2011 during a trip to Thailand but only just processed today.

Italy 2004

It was the year 2004 when I first ventured to Europe. Ever since I was little, I dreamt of visiting countries far far away. For me, Rome was the dream destination choice. The trip did not disappoint. From the moment the plane landed at Aeroporto di Fiumicino, I was taken away by the italian accent, the friendliness of the people and the charming culture. These are some of the black and white images which I captured on the trip. Rome is timeless and to me, it is definitely one of the most romantic cities in the world.

Kickstart...

As I get busier with my day job, there are fewer words when I get home. Dishpiglets has been going for about 18 months now and these days since starting the new job, I have hardly any time to cook, let alone bake. My week days are spent working long hours in the studio which I have dreamt of working at since we moved to London. As for my weekends, I try and have some time out and spend time with the dude and my friends. With the long term project of getting my photography website going, I have decided to focus on what I love and create this visual diary, where I will document my life and occasionally dig out some photos from the good ol' film photography days. Below are some of the black and white photos I took during my 2003 Nepal trip where we headed to Annapurna base camp (4145m). There were about 20 rolls of film in my day pack alongside my trusty Nikon SLR and three other lenses which I lugged with me. That was an experience like no other.

A new beginning

Don't mind me as I find my feet…