I have a love/hate relationship with London.
On the one hand, London is probably the most culturally rich city in the world. You cannot throw a pack of jellied eels without hitting a museum or a historical landmark. Seriously, we went to Paris, and struggled to find anything that was a) particularly good and b) free. France goes on about the Louvre, but in my mind, London has at least 3 museums at least as good, and they are largely free to enter
On the other hand, London always feels overcrowded, fractious, and continuously stressed. I can take it for a short while, but the thought of spending more than a few days would send me screaming to the nearest train station.
One of the aforementioned cultural gems in London is the British Museum. Yes, we can all tut-tut about its imperialist past and the issues of cultural appropriation, but the fact is, there is nowhere in the world where you will find such a wide range of archaeologically significant objects under one roof. You can easily spend a whole day there and still find you've missed, say, the native american exhibition.
Normally, I plan to go to London at least one day a year, on my own. My wonderful wife struggles to understand why I do not plan it as a family event, but I have good reasons.
Firstly, I like to keep my plans as loose as possible. This is not my wife's way. She would demand we have an itemised plan set to military precision, where I don't want to be tied down.
Secondly, despite my avowed intention to go to an exhibit, my main reason to go is to take photographs. I just cannot do photography in groups, because again, I don't know what I plan to take images of, and need the time and flexibility to pivot if the original ideas are not working
My first plan was to visit the Hiroshige exhibition at the British Museum. is an 19th century Japanese artist, who was painting, just before Japan was forced to accept foreign travellers and started to looking to the West for inspiration, turning away from the kind of imagery perfected Hiroshige and Hokusai since it was considered old-fashioned (ironically at the same time, Western artists had discovered Japanese art and the impressionists especially were greatly influenced. Van Gogh even copied one of Hiroshige images)
I booked for 12 O'clock, got seriously scalped by British Rail, and arrived at 11. I walked to the museum only to find vast queues waiting to go in. For a while, it was touch-and-go whether I would get in at all. The issue seemed to be the now obligatory extinction rebellion/PLO action bag search at the entrance. (Just to say the searches are a joke. My bag has more pockets than even I can find, but they only look in the main section and ignore the rest).
I got seriously bored in the queue, so I decided to take images of my fellow travellers and then anything else that took my fancy. One thing that drew me was the cyclists.
London cyclists are a breed apart, ignoring traffic, road signs and pedestrians as they speed around the streets. There are many, and it felt like a good opportunity to practice my panning techniques and street photography at the same time
Fortunately, I got into the museum at 11:50. However, my plan to spend a good 45 minutes exploring other parts of the museum was now ruined, so I made my way up to the exhibition. I was worried that the exhibition itself would also be cheek by jowl, but it was relatively empty.
While the exhibition was interesting, it was a bit on the short side. Hiroshige made over 200 popular prints, the exhibition only covered a handful (I was a bit annoyed to find some of the most popular images you could also see for free in the Japanese gallery).
By one O'clock I had finished, so the question was what to do next. Before going down, I had done a quick Google search of photo exhibitions and noticed the RPS had their show at the Saatchi gallery in Sloane Square. A few problems with that, firstly, Sloane Square is in Chelsea, where the other half live. By the other half, I mean the other 1% people who have so much money that all they have to do is spend it. Secondly, I have never been a fan of the RPS. I know a number of people who attempt to get RPS accreditation, and they seem to demand bland and unadventurous imagery.
Still without any other ideas, I took a short tube ride to the gallery. There I was, quite surprised. The images bordered on what some would term arty bollocks, and were really quite interesting. However, again I had time to kill, so I decided to pay to go to the flower exhibition in the same gallery. This hurt because I was giving money to a gallery that commemorated one of the more odious individuals in British society. It felt like paying to go into the Pol Pot pottery museum.
The exhibition was about how flowers are represented in all forms of art media, including photography and was surprisingly good
Finally, I popped into the Fuji gallery on Leicester Square, to be tempted by the toys on offer and the small photo exhibition upstairs.
So, did I get anything out of the day? Despite its brevity, the Hiroshige exhibition was enjoyable, and I got some inspiration from both the RPS and Flowers shows. However, the best part of the day was just being on my own, sniping at cyclists. These won't win me any awards, but I felt good doing it, and in the end, that is what matters, isn't it?
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