Londonist Behind The Lens: Che-burashka

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 172 months ago
Londonist Behind The Lens: Che-burashka
The lights of a big city
The lights of a big city
Liverpool Street station
Liverpool Street station
Other London
Other London
Snow in London
Snow in London
End of business
End of business
Living in dreams
Living in dreams
Fragment
Fragment

A series celebrating the talent of our friends over in the Londonist Flickr pool. Here, they introduce themselves and share their favourite London shots. This week, Che-burashka...

I moved to London from Russia almost 9 years ago with my job. Initially, I really hated everything about it - expensive rent, cold houses, crowded tube and a strange pub culture where you drink before you have a meal. Everything was alien to me and I was not sure what I was doing here. Fortunately I was travelling a lot on business so I did not have proper time to do anything about it. Travelling was the initial reason why I picked up my first compact camera, a passion which developed slowly but with irreversible strength as I got to know the place better and better. I like the vibrancy, cosmopolitan nature, architecture and variety which London has. Also, I think it is the one of the most tolerant and opened minded cities ever. That is why it so thrilling and enjoyable to photograph this city and its people. There's a wide variety of subject areas.

My passion is street photography and something which I called "urban lyric": get up, have morning coffee, commute to work by foot or more often by train or tube; later, go down for lunch from the offices, walk along busy streets with a lot of strangers looking similar to us... we do not pay attention to the moments when beauty sparkles from this mundane environment and often we are part of it. A long shadow cast by a high building and a passer by, the light trail of a speeding train, light in the night cafes reflected on wet pavement, or people's faces merged into a constant river of movement. All this can be unforgettably touching and very poetic. That is what I want to reflect in my images.

I like to shoot in East London, especially the East End, Shoreditch and more recently Hackney. I've started to go for photo walks in Deptford - the Laban Centre on Creekside by Herzog de Meuron is the one of my favourite buildings in the capital. For photography I like places where there is a lot of human interaction such as the Southbank, markets or the Tube. I am also very much fascinated by urban waterways. I secretly dream of making a book about the Regent's Canal...

Che-burashka's photography website is in development but you can also check out her Flickrstream for more

Last Updated 07 November 2009