NOTLondon – Introduction to the book published by Pallas Athene (2021), available at http://www.notlondon.uk/
Before I began photographing the homeless on London’s streets I worked for NGOs in some of the poorest countries in the world and in some of the world’s largest refugee camps in the middle east and other disaster areas. The misery and dangers of day to day live in these places: living reduced to below the minimum required to maintain dignity and self-respect was plain to see. Returning from these trips often shaken and upset at what I had seen to my horror I began discovering similar misery, noticing people of every age and colour in doorways, under arches, in underground stations, covered in cardboard boxes and if you knew where to look in the evening, queues in the back streets of central London waiting for open air kitchens to give them their only meal of the day. It is as though there is a conspiracy not to see these people and yet they are there, in their thousands on London’s busiest and wealthiest streets just out of sight, a whole city of homeless people searching out the best spots to beg and sleep, where hypothermia will not claim them and anxious about where their next bottle of alcohol or drug fix is coming from.
The stories that have reduced them to living on the streets are often of miserable childhoods abandoned or abusive, mothers and fathers whom they never knew or at least never knew sober. Or they are stories of heartbreak and betrayal, frequently the stories of the younger homeless. They are lonely and often scarred and tragically too ashamed to return to families that would welcome them back. When you sit on the pavement with them, they readily engage you in conversation. It is rare the public talk to you, they tell you. Often I would go back a few days later (to give them a copy of their photograph), sometimes they are still there, sometimes their colleagues tell me they have gone away or sometimes they have died, usually hyperthermia, drugs or un-treated ill health. But gone away or dead their spots are quickly occupied.
I must acknowledge those who helped and supported me throughout the Not London project: Henri Kiselewski whose constant advice has given this project direction, confidence and integrity. Billy Dawton for his support and for building the on-line presence for the project. To Ross White who although came late to the project managed to ‘art direct’ the project in reverse and give my photographs an elegance and narrative that seems to me close to magic. To Louisa Macmilllan for her generous support and her always kind and incisive advice. To Dia Azzawi for his support and who taught me that nothing beautiful can be created without commitment. To Leilani Farha for anchoring the book with her wonderful introduction and lastly to Richard Currall who as fate would have it, met me on the very first day I began the Not London project and who has been with me for the entire duration. Without him none of this would have happened.
And finally, thank you to every one of you on the streets who let me into your lives for a brief moment to talk to you and take your picture. I was honoured and humbled every time.
Anthony Dawton
23/02/2021
