California

Here are some of my photos from a recent trip to California.

 

 

After many many years: Downtown L.A. again.

 

Much has changed there in the nine years since I last was in L.A. but some thing, like this shop window are still much the same.

 

One morning in the hill on the way to Santa Barbara.

 

Castroville, just south of Santa Cruz is the world capital of artichokes apparently. The artichoke festival with floats and an Artichoke Queen is in May. I'd love to come back for that some time.

The Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco mist.

Hove portraits

On a commission last week in Hove I took these portraits of people working in and running local businesses. Victorija Marinova works at Lala's Café, CaroleAnn Podes and her dog Misty opened The Restoratin Rooms about a year ago, Julian Pelling has been running his record shop Fine Records for much longer and Dan Morrison is a barman at The Foragers pub.

Please join us for a conversation about my recently published book Métier, Small Businesses in London

I will be in conversation with Dawn Lyon and Karen McQuaid
at
X Marks the Bökship
210 / Unit 3 Cambridge Heath Road
London E2 9NQ
Thursday 30. Jan, 7pm
http://www.bokship.org

Métier, small businesses in London, is a book by photographer Laura Braun about small-scale independent and specialist businesses in London and the people who run them. In a time when the high-streets of London are taking on a more and more corporate character, this book about independent traders offers an unusual and interesting perspective on this city and an insight into the working lives of people who strongly identify with their occupation. Over 6 years Laura Braun slowly added to this collection of portraits and interior photographs of very individual London businesses. Her subjects are people with fascinating lives shaped by their longterm involvement with their line of work and business. The spaces they work in reveal interesting details about the persons inhabiting them and the work they do.
Laura will be talking to sociologist Dawn Lyon and photography curator Karen McQuaid about the project the making of the book.
Métier, Small businesses in London was published by Paper Tigers Books in 2013.

Richard Deacon for The Telegraph

Sculptor Richard Deacon's retrospective show at Tate Britain opens on February 5th. A couple of weeks ago I photographed him for The Telegraph. You will recognise the setting of this picture from my previous post: Emily and the invisible chair.

Here is a link to the Telegraph article online:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/10579803/Richard-Deacon-interview-twisting-chaos-into-shape.html

Emily and the invisible chair

I did a job for the Sunday Telegraph Magazine last week. Here's my assistant for the day, lovely Emily, sitting on thin air.

Now available online

My book Métier, Small businesses in London can now be bought online through the Paper Tigers Books website:
http://www.papertigersbooks.com/index.php?/coming-soon/metier/

 

Métier launch at TPG

The launch of MÉTIER was this week at The Photographer's Gallery Bookshop.
It was a lovely lovely night. I was particularly happy that a few of the poeple I photographed for the book made it to the launch. Here I am talking to Lorenzo Marioni of the closed down New Piccadilly Café, Gary Arber of W.A Arber and Co., printer and stationer in Bow and Klaus Kalde, black and white photographic printer with his daughter.

Thank you to everyone who came!

Photos by Kristian Buus.

 

 

Métier on Hole & Corner

Over the next few weeks Hole & Corner Magazine is publishing a few of the stories from Métier on their site. So to have a sneak peak of what's to come have a look here:

http://www.holeandcornermagazine.com/notes/w-f-arber-co-ltd.html

Please join us at The Book Launch for MÉTIER on December 3rd.

MÉTIER, Small Businesses in London, Book Launch and Signing
The Photographers' Gallery Bookshop
16 - 18 Ramillies St, London W1F 7LW
3 December 2013, 18.00-20.00
Free event, no  booking

The book will be avaulable in selected Bookshops and via the Paper Tigers Books Website from Dec 3rd. www.papertigersbooks.com


Métier, is about small-scale independent and specialist businesses in the capital and the people who run them. Over six years, Laura Braun slowly added to this collection of portraits and interior photographs of very individual London businesses. In a time when the high streets of London are taking on a more and more corporate character, this book offers an unusual and interesting perspective on the city and an insight into the working lives of people who strongly identify with their occupation.

Métier contains photographs of 26 people and their places of work, accompanied by a short text about each person and business and an afterword by sociologist Dawn Lyon.

New book - pre-order to raise funds for production

Some of you will know that over the last 6 years I have been slowly working on a project about small-scale, independent, specialist businesses and the people who run them here in London. It has been a labour of love, a truly personal project, which I added to slowly whenever I came across another person or business that made me curious and which I wanted to let people know about.
Now I am working on putting this project together as a book to be published via Paper Tigers Books in December. But making books is expensive and so I would like to ask for your help.
I have started a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo where you can essentially order the book in advance helping me raise the funds to produce it. If you want to contribute a little more you can also order a limited edition print of one of the photographs from the project or a book and a print together.
Please have a look at the campaign here, and at the facebook page here, support it and spread the word!