Portrait of a City: A Look at London

3 minute read
1997. Some punks kept their Mohican haircuts and lived by charging tourists money to photograph them (often by a red bus or telephone box).Martin Parr—Magnum
By Megan Gibson

In the new photo book London: Portrait of a City, editor Reuel Golden says he wanted to use images to “convey the history of the city and tell it in a compelling way that will sort of surprise people as well.” That’s no easy feat when the city in question is one of the world’s oldest. But Golden says he found London’s photographic history was most compelling in three main eras: the Victorian period, the post-World War II era and the swinging ’60s. Images from those particular time periods, according to Golden, best displayed “the character of the city, the soul of the city and the personality of the city.”

That’s not to say the process was simple. To kick the project off, a few thousand photos were compiled, many of which were found buried in dusty drawers from places like the London Metropolitan Archive, which catalogs records of the city. Then came the task— carried out by Golden, famed publisher Benedikt Taschen and art director Josh Baker—of whittling down the thousands of images into a manageable collection of photos that exemplified London. Though the book is the latest in a series of city-themed collections (past books have featured New York and Berlin), when it came to picking images of London, the team was especially critical in what they included. They were looking for photos that exuded “fashion, a certain kind of cool,” says Golden. “And also you want to show ready identifiable icons.”

Throughout the pages–which also feature essays on the city–there are images of London life from the East end to the West end, all of which are invariably both familiar and fresh. Each image symbolizes a recognizable piece of London’s architecture, history, culture and of course, its iconic style, but often in a way that’s never been seen before.

The end result is a 552-page behemoth of a book with hundreds of images from anonymous and amateur photographers, as well as the big names of the business like Bill Brandt and David Bailey. “It’s important to get a good mix of big, important photographers, but also people who just documented London in a totally, totally different way,” says Golden. “Part of our mission behind these books is to sort of discover lesser known photographers and bring them out to the light of the world.”

London: Portrait of a City was recently released by TASCHEN.

May 1956. Children sunbathing next to the old outdoor rooftop swimming pool at the Oasis Leisure Centre at High Holborn at the corner of Endell Street, Covent Garden. There have been baths and washhouses here since 1853.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
December 1929. A photographer dangles over Fleet Street, with St Paul's in the background.Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images
August 1923. Easter fairs have been held on Hampstead Heath since the late 19th century and they became so popular that in 1920 Queen Alexandra drove past to view the festivities. Soon there was a weekly funfair, including the popular roundabout swings seen here.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1942. The first week of June 1942 was hotter than usual, reaching 29.4 degrees Celcius on the 6th. Londoners took advantage of the heat to sunbathe in the parks.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1938. Unloading hay at warehouses on the South Bank. London still had horses to feed. This seemingly rural scene is contrasted by a view of the Houses of Parliament in the background.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1936. Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists planned to march through the largely Jewish East End on Oct. 4, 1936. The government refused to stop the march, so 300,000 anti-fascist demonstrators stopped it for them in the face of 10,000 police.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
1890s. The City and South London Railway opened the world's first electric underground railway to the public on Dec. 18, 1890. Using the electrified third-rail system it ran from King William Street to Stockwell.Bettmann/Corbis
May 1970. Mounted police protect the American embassy on Grosvenor Square from a crowd of 5,000 people demonstrating against the U.S. invasion of Cambodia.Bettmann/Corbis
1951. Battersea Fun Fair, opened in 1951, was part of the Festival of Britain celebrations.Elmar Ludwig
1967. The original Apple Boutique, run by Dutch design group The Fool, who also painted the outside, was on the corner of Paddington Street and Baker Street. Westminster Council immediately made them paint over the psychedelic mural.Bill Zygmant
1939-1945. In what looks like a staged morale boosting image, a woman saves a board game from the bomb wreckage. John Hinde
1910. A wet night in Trafalgar Square. A woman poses for a moody night-time shot. Despite the rain, a row of taxis wait on the west side of the square.Mary Evans Picture Library
1967. Charlotte Rampling in her dollybird days before she came to fame in Luchino Visconti's 1969 film 'The Damned' which gave her a new image as mysterious, tragic and sensitive.Philip Townsend
1997. Some punks kept their Mohican haircuts and lived by charging tourists money to photograph them (often by a red bus or telephone box).Martin Parr—Magnum

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