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Bright Lights, Colour and Diversity: Photographs by Loren Brand
© Photograph by Loren Brand
Isle of Dogs Life has over the years showcased a number of talented individuals who live on the Island and recently I was contacted by Loren Brand who is developing her career as a photographer and videographer.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
Loren was kind enough to send over a number of photographs that illustrate her skills and provided some background about why she is inspired by the Isle of Dogs and London.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
I grew up in Scotland in a coastal area of outstanding scenery and beautiful beaches but I was drawn to cities and moved firstly to Edinburgh and then on to London. I moved to the Isle of Dogs 4 years ago and love how connected it is, by river, road, tube and DLR.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
After spending most of my working life in finance and asset management, I felt that I wanted to be more creative and was drawn to photography. I bought my first DSLR and I’ve very happily dedicated myself to it ever since.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
I’m drawn to bright lights, colour and diversity. A theme I’m keen on is the mix of old and new. London in general and the Isle of Dogs in particular has all of these elements.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
I follow a lot of photographers on Instagram so I’m inspired on a daily basis by fabulous photography from around the world. I particularly like the work of Jon Herbert (London photography), Nigel Danson (landscape photography), Peter McKinnon (a Canadian and prolific YouTuber) and fellow Scot, Albert Watson, who’s an all round photographer, comfortable with people, landscapes and detail.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
I try to capture beauty in my images and want to share that so during the coronavirus restrictions I’ve switched my focus to developing images good enough to offer as large (and small) scale prints. Just recently I’ve worked on getting an initial small selection of these onto my website.
© Photograph by Loren Brand
What I really like about Loren’s work is her night photography that gives a very different perspective from what you normally see. She also manages to capture some of the stunning sunsets over the City of London.
If you would like to see more of Loren’s work, go to her website here and Instagram account here
More ‘Docklands at War’ Photographs from the Museum of London Docklands
To commemorate VE Day on Friday 8 May, the Museum of London Docklands has released a number of images from its ‘Docklands at War’ gallery with additional exclusive content from the collection rarely on display.
Many of the photographs illustrate that the London docks and the riverside factories in the East End of London bore the brunt of enemy attack and were targeted by enemy aircraft, with over 25,000 German bombs falling on the Docklands over the course of the war.
Tin of dried eggs. Fresh eggs were rationed in World War II. Although many people kept chickens, eggs were in short supply for most Londoners. In May 1941 the first imported dried egg powder arrived from America. The initial allowance for a family was one packet, equivalent to twelve eggs, every eight weeks. This allowance later increased to a packet every four weeks. The Ministry of Food issued recipe leaflets instructing © Museum of London
The photographs also illustrates some of the stranger aspects of the war like powdered eggs and tinned whalemeat.
Part of a German bomb, dropped on London by German bombers during World War II. © Museum of London
Air Raid Precautions rattle. During World War II, Air Raid Precautions wardens were employed to help members of the public during bombing raids. During training, wardens were instructed on how to respond to a gas attack. If poisonous gas were released over London, wardens were told to sound a hand rattle to alert people to stay indoors or put on their gas masks. Fortunately London never did experience any enemy gas attacks during the war. © Museum of London
Superintendent’s Office, Royal Albert Dock, October 1938. Port of London Authority (PLA) buildings were reinforced with sandbags so they could be used as air-raid shelters. Photography: John H. Avery & Co © PLA Collection / Museum of London
The Prime Minister and Mrs Churchill, with the Flag Officer, London, and J Douglas Ritchie (on left), touring London’s dock in Sept 1940, seen with a group of auxiliary firemen © PLA Collection / Museum of London
Tin of whalemeat steak for use in casseroles. Produced by ‘Taistbest’ the tin contains 16 ounces of whalemeat. A blue and white paper label surrounding the tin describes the contents and gives details of the manufacture. Whale meat was one of many unfamiliar food products imported to the UK during World War II. The government encouraged housewives to use whale meat as a substitute for meat and fish, both of which were in short supply. This tin provides a ready-made casserole meal of whale meat, but the Ministry of Food also issued information on how to fry, stew and mince this unrationed food © Museum of London
Royal Docks air raid precautions. Completed concrete shelter covered with earth. Entrance shown on the right. An emergency exit was allowed for the left hand end. Date: 11/07/1939 © PLA Collection / Museum of London
Night Raid over London Docklands. This is a dramatic view of a night time raid on the city, during the Second World War, by Wimbledon-born ‘fireman artist’ Wilfred Stanley Haines. From Rotherhithe on the south bank, the scene looks towards Wapping and depicts parachute flares, deployed by German bombers, illuminating the sky. They fall towards the Wapping entrance of the London Docks, seen in the background on the far left, as searchlights criss-cross the night sky.
If you would like to see more photographs from the period, Con Maloney has made a wonderful video which uses images from the Island History Trust’s photographic collection. Many thanks to Debbie Levett from the FOIHT for sending the link, to watch press here
The video was made on behalf of the Massey Shaw Education Trust and Friends of Island History Trust to mark the 75th Anniversary of VE Day but to also recognise what we are going through today.
If you are interested in Docklands at War, you will find plenty of information and photographs at the Museum of London Docklands and their online collections.
Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta 2016 over the Isle of Dogs by L. Katiyo
Photo by L Katiyo
For those who enjoyed their Sunday morning lie in ( which includes myself ) , they missed a spectacular sight over the Isle of Dogs this morning. Fortunately regular contributor L Katiyo was on hand to take a few photographs as the Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta made its way over the Island and East London.
Photo by L Katiyo
The Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta is an annual event which sees fifty hot air balloons flying over London raising money and awareness for the Lord Mayor’s charity. The inaugural event in 2015 raised almost £80,000 for the charity and the event.
Photo by L Katiyo
Because it is so weather dependant, the Balloon Regatta is on standby on each Sunday throughout June and this morning was the first clear morning to allow the launch to take place.
Photo by L Katiyo
The launch site was Burgess Park in Southwark and the Balloons took off around 4:45-5am with a flight track to the east side of Tower Bridge north of Canary Wharf heading out towards Romford.
Photo by L Katiyo
Many thanks for L Katiyo for her early morning photography of a spectacular event which I suspect most of us missed.
Photo by L Katiyo
The Photography of Christina Broom at the Museum of London Docklands – 19 June to 1 November 2015
The Museum of Docklands is located in West India Quay within a Grade One listed converted Georgian sugar warehouse and has a large number of fascinating permanent exhibits, however they also have a series of temporary exhibitions on particular themes.
On the 19th June, the museum presents a new exhibition which looks at the life and work of an early 20th century female photographer, Christina Broom. The exhibition is entitled Soldiers and Suffragettes: The Photography of Christina Broom and includes a wide range of her work, including Suffragette processions, First World War soldiers, official photographs of the Household Division and key London events, from the Lord Mayor’s Parade and royal coronations and funerals to historical pageants.
Although Broom is considered to be the UK’s first female press photographer, she only began her photographic career in 1903 at the age of 40. The injury of her husband in a cricket accident led Broom to turn to the photography trade as a source of financial income. What made Broom’s work stand out from her female photographer contemporaries was that she became a sort of roving reporter taking to the streets to photograph newsworthy events.
What was extraordinary about Broom’s work was that although she was driven by commercial concerns using the photographs to make postcards to sell at her stall at the gates of the Royal Mews in London, what she was actually producing was a unique visual record of the people, locations and events of the time. In her thirty-six year career she produced around 40,000 photographs .
Perhaps because of her commercial output, her photographic reputation has been ignored up to the present day, however this exhibition goes some way to rectify this oversight. In an age when camera’s were bulky and difficult to transport, Broom achieves a wonderfully high standard that was recognised even by the Royal Family.
A walk around the exhibition offer glimpses into the past from pageants to funerals, parades to protests. Perhaps the most poignant are the servicemen from the First World War, the fun and high jinks of the soldiers in the photographs is tempered by the fact that the viewer would understand many would not return from the front.
This intriguing and important free exhibition runs till November and is well worth a visit.
Last of the Tall Ships
Photo by L Katiyo
After the excitement of the Parade of Sail and the Greenwich Tall Ships Festival , life will slowly get back to normal and the river will seem strangely quiet and desolate. I was very fortunate in my quest to report the activities of the last few days to have the assistance of regular contributors L Katiyo and Eric Pemberton.
Photo by Eric Pemberton
As one last feature on the Tall ships , I would like to feature some of their photographs that captured the once in a generation event.
Photo by L Katiyo
Photo by Eric Pemberton
Photo by L Katiyo
Photo by Eric Pemberton
Photo by L Katiyo
Photo by Eric Pemberton
Photo by L Katiyo
Photo by Eric Pemberton
Greenwich Tall Ship Festival Fireworks by L Katiyo
Photo by L Katiyo
With the Greenwich Tall Ship Festival coming to its conclusion today, it may be time to reflect on one of its highlights.
Photo by L Katiyo
Every night of the festival there has been spectacular firework displays which have entertained the crowds.
Photo by L Katiyo
Regular contributor L Katiyo joined the crowds to watch Greenwich light up the London skies.
Photo by L Katiyo
Just a reminder that the festival finale , The Parade of Sail takes place today, when all of the Tall Ships that have come to Royal Greenwich for the Tall Ships Festival take to the Thames together .
The ships will gather near Maritime Greenwich at around 12 noon, before departing eastwards in the Parade of Sail along the Thames towards Tilbury from around 1.30pm.
- The first ship will leave Greenwich at around 1.30pm.
- It is then expected to cross Woolwich at about 2.30pm.
- It can take as much as two hours for all the ships to pass a particular point on the river
Photo by L Katiyo
A. G. Linney photographs of the Isle of Dogs 1926 – 1935
Millwall Dock; Traffic queuing in the Westferry Road as a ship enters the Millwall entrance lock in September, 1926.
A few weeks ago I published a post about the photographs of Albert Gravely Linney who in the 1920s and 1930s took thousands of photographs of the Thames and the riverside.
Albert Gravely Linney was a writer and journalist who in 1925 became the first editor of the new Port of London Authority Monthly Magazine which gave him full access to most of the docks and wharves along the river.
Wherever he went, Linney took his camera. He also published a number of books featuring stories and the history of the Thames, his most popular books being Peepshow of the Port of London and The Lure and Lore of London’s River .
In the following photographs we follow A.G. Linney on to the Isle of Dogs where he records views that would be drastically changed within the next ten years.
Street view in Ferry Road off West Ferry Road. Above the terraced houses the masts and yards of the barque Killoran can be seen under repair in Britannia Dry Dock.
A.G. Linney ,1928 (Museum of London )
The name Britannia Dock dates from 1863, The dock later formed part of the Millwall Iron Works . Too small to be financially viable in the 20th century it closed in 1935. The filled-in site became a timber-yard, known as Britannia Wharf.
Britannia Wharf near to Napier’s Yard on Westferry Road
Draw Docks: The Newcastle Public Draw Dock, Cubitt Town on the Isle of Dogs on 24th March, 1935.
A.G. Linney ,1935 (Museum of London )
Built as part of Cubitt’s initial development of the riverside in the 1840s, the Newcastle Public Draw Dock still exists and has a Grade II listing, as have the four original bollards in the dock entrance on Saunders Ness Road.
Millwall: West Ferry Road, near Regent Dry Dock. 1926. View down West Ferry road near Regent Dry Dock, the masts of a ship visible over the wall at the end of the road.
A.G. Linney ,1926 (Museum of London )
Regent Dry Dock had a considerable history constructed between 1813 and 1817 on a site with a river frontage of some 200ft, in the 1860s the dock was expanded to accept two ships at the same time.
Towards the end of the 19th century it was in decline , although occupied between 1916 and 1930, the dock was filled in 1932 and the site taken over by Lenantons.
Miscellaneous Views: A barge lying on the foreshore at the Napier Yard, Millwall, on 18th July, 1931. In the distance a large dredger is lying off the Royal Naval Victualing Yard at Deptford.
A.G. Linney ,1931 (Museum of London )
See the above map to see where Napier Yard was located.
Miscellaneous Views: An impressive shot of J.T. Morton’s Wharf at Millwall, on 8th May, 1932. A really excellent shot showing the barges lying on the chalk bedded campsheds beside the river wall.
A.G. Linney ,1932 (Museum of London )
Morton’s became famous in the 19th century for its canned and preserved foods. The Millwall factory was opened about 1872 and became one of the largest employers on the Island. Another claim to fame was that Millwall Football Club originated with a team formed by workers at Mortons in 1885.
At the end of the 19th century the Mortons riverfront was redeveloped which included the laying down of a barge-bed to facilitate loading and unloading.
In 1945 the company was taken over by Beechams who gradually run down the site which was virtually derelict until the 1980s when the site was redeveloped for housing and is now the location of the Cascades development.
Fighting a fire on a barge off Island Gardens, Isle of Dogs, on 28th August, 1930. The barge, in the centre of the picture, was loaded with copra. Firemen in brass helmets can be glimpsed through the smoke, standing on the barge.
A.G. Linney ,1930 (Museum of London )
London Bridges Past and Present
Unknown photographer Lower Pool, with Tower Bridge under construction Glass lantern slide c. late 19th century © Museum of London
In recent weeks I have published a number of posts about London Bridges centred around the Bridge Exhibition in West India Quay.
As part of the promotion for the exhibition , the Museum of London took some of the photographs from the exhibition and added the modern view.
These then and now hybrid photographs are very popular at the moment, so I thought I would share some of the best ones.
What is perhaps most noticeable is that in the older photographs , that the Thames was a working river filled with ships and with cranes and warehouses dominating the riverfronts.
The modern photographs seem more dominated by the large buildings that have multiplied in the City in the last few years.
Henry Turner (active 1930s) A Windy Evening on London Bridge c. 1937 From Wordsworth to T S Eliot, the crowds streaming across London Bridge have always attracted attention. Turner was a photographer and General Secretary of the Empire Press Union (later Commonwealth Press Union). He made this image for E Arnot Robertson’s book Thames Portrait (1937).© Henry Turner/Museum of London
Unknown photographer Charing Cross Railway Bridge Glass lantern slide c. late 19th century Taken from South Bank. © Museum of London
Albert Gravely Linney Tower Bridge framing the Dome of St Paul’s Cathedral c. 1930 Taken from the river, looking west. © Albert Gravely Linney/Museum of London
Henry Turner (active 1930s) Southwark Bridge c. 1935 © Henry Turner/Museum of London
Albert Gravely Linney Beginning the Demolition of Old Waterloo Bridge c. 1934 Taken from Hungerford Bridge. © Albert Gravely Linney/Museum of London
George Davison Reid (1871–1933) Looking north across London Bridge ) c. 1920s Taken from inside on the 5th floor of No1 London Bridge. © George Davison Reid/Museum of London
Christina Broom (1863–1939) Waterloo Bridge from the Embankment c. 1903–10 Taken from the North Bank of the Thames. © Christina Broom/Museum of London
Museum of London Docklands – Bridge exhibition
27 June – 2 November 2014,
FREE exhibition,
For more information visit the Museum of London Docklands website here
Picture the Moment – The Photographs of Roxy Kapranos
Shadows (Paris)
One of the pleasures of writing a blog is that you find a lot of talented people who live in or are inspired by the Isle of Dogs. A few weeks ago I came across the work of Roxy Kapranos , Roxy is a local photographer who has lived on the Island for over six years and often uses local locations as the backdrop to her photo shoots.
Divers (Dubai)
Photography has been a life long passion for Roxy and was often found taking pictures with her father’s camera as she was taken around the ancient sites in Greece by her parents. She can still remember the excitement of returning home to the UK and helping her father process the photographs in a small lab.
She still likes to take photographs in exotic places as illustrated by the photographs from Dubai and Paris.
However Roxy is really in demand for her portrait photography and family photography, although she does some conventionally posed photographs, her aim is to produce a more spontaneous and natural photographs. Her philosophy is based on that the more formal photography does not always allow for the sitter’s personality to come through and when photographing children especially you have to often get them to forget the camera is there and allow them to behave naturally.
To achieve this she will often travel to outside settings such as a garden or even Mudchute farm to make sure everyone is relaxed and she is better able to capture those moments that show the individuals personality and shows the interaction between different members of the family.
Roxy makes the point that even though many people have a camera, many families will have photographs where there is often an important member of the family missing ! the one taking the photographs.
It is often later in life when people realise they do not have many photographs of someone special to them.
This may suggest that it would be useful in having an outside photographer who can sometimes ensure there are at least some occasions that the whole family can be photographed together.
If you would like to see more of Roxy’s work or find more information, visit her website here
A G Linney Photographs of Trinity Buoy Wharf 1927 – 1930
Miscellaneous Views: The north bank of the Thames between Blackwall and Trinity Buoy Wharf, on 3rd February, 1929. To the left is J.W. Cook’s Orchard Wharf, Orchard Stairs and causeway. The lighthouse on Trinity Buoy Wharf is in the centre distance, and to the left of that the towers of the Thames Ironworks building at the mouth of the River Lea.
A.G. Linney ,1929 (Museum of London )
In a recent post on the Bridge exhibition, there were a couple of photographs by Albert Gravely Linney , although he was not a professional photographer, his work is now considered very important because he captured all aspects of the River Thames just before the destruction of World War Two.
Albert Gravely Linney was a writer and journalist who in 1925 became the first editor of the new Port of London Authority Monthly Magazine which gave him full access to most of the docks and wharves along the river.
Wherever he went, Linney took his camera. He also published a number of books featuring stories and the history of the Thames, his most popular books being Peepshow of the Port of London and The Lure and Lore of London’s River .
The Museum of London holds thousands of Linney’s photographs and over the next few weeks I will do a series of posts showcasing his work in relation to the Isle of Dogs.
First of all is the photographs that Linney took at Trinity Buoy Wharf in the years 1927 – 1930, what is really fascinating about this series of pictures is to see Trinity Wharf as a working centre.
For nearly 200 years, from 1803 to 1988, Trinity Buoy Wharf was occupied by the Corporation of Trinity House, initially for storing buoys and sea-marks, but in the 19th century took over the responsibility for testing chains, anchors and cables which led to the building of number of workshops and a lighthouse for testing, repairing and making equipment.
In the 1930s that work was still being undertaken, so we have pictures of men painting Buoys and the mountains of chains and cables. We also have next to Trinity Buoy Wharf , the famous Thames Ironworks which closed in 1912 but a few buildings at this time still remained.
Miscellaneous views: A Trinity House vessel moored alongside the Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, in August, 1930. Bow Creek, the entrance to the River Lea is on the right. A.G. Linney ,1930 (Museum of London )
Miscellaneous views: Buoys lined up on the quayside at Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, in March, 1929. In the background is the Engineering Department building of the Thames Ironworks, which was demolished around 1948. A.G. Linney ,1929 (Museum of London )
Miscellaneous views: Mooring chains awaiting tests at Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, in July, 1927. The man in the foreground is the Superintendent of the Trinity House Depot, Mr Reynolds. A.G. Linney ,1927 (Museum of London )
Miscellaneous views: Painting buoys at the Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, in July, 1927. Linney did not take many photographs of people actually at work. A.G. Linney ,1927 (Museum of London )
Miscellaneous views: The experimental lighthouse at Trinity Buoy Wharf, Blackwall, in June, 1929. Built in 1864, the lighthouse has survived although Trinity House sold the site in the late 1980s.A.G. Linney ,1927 (Museum of London )
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