Human Traffic #4 (London, 2000) - Limited Edition 1 of 10 Print

This is an image from a large project I shot between 1999 and 2000 just before I left England permanently for Canada. I photographed on London's Oxford Street for a year, one or two days a week. I walked so far I wore out a good pair of shoes. The regulars got to know me: the guy in the car park, the pickpockets, the Yugoslavian beggars, the newspaper sellers, the guys who sold film. Especially the guys who sold film It took four months before I got a good picture. Everything happened too fast. I would see something but before I could take a picture, it had gone. Eventually I learned to hot-wire the connection between heart, brain and camera so that as far as possible it bypassed the brain part. My heart beat a little faster and the camera fired. Oftentimes it wasn't until I looked at the negative that I found out what had provoked the finger to release the shutter. I was often surprised to discover I'd had time to focus without even knowing what I'd focused on I guess looking back that what I was really seeking was the flash of humanity, of connection. It's a fleeting thing. There were many days I would pound up and down the pavements and shoot roll after roll of meaningless pictures. I'd go home exhausted, disheartened. I'd give up. Only, of course, I couldn't give up. Then there'd come along one of those other days, enchanted ones, everything was laid out for me "like a patient etherised on a table" as Eliot put it. Almost all of the best pictures come from these magic rolls. And yet the street is no different from day to day: it flows like a river. So perhaps the real conclusion to be drawn from all this is that even (or perhaps especially) when are out with a camera on the most crowded of streets, you are only ever taking photographs of yourself. Tech stuff: this is a giclee print of an original 35mm negative shot using a Leica camera. The print is made using archival inks on acid-free Museo Silver Rag paper. The physical dimensions of the print are 36x24". The actual image minus the white borders is 32"x21.5"

Print:Giclee on Photo Paper

Size:12 W x 8 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:17.25 W x 13.25 H x 1.2 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.