London’s Overthrow is a very different diary of London in Nov-Dec 2011, superbly written by China Miéville, part of which was featured in the New York Times, though their piece lacks the unity of the full work, which includes Miéville’s mobile phone images. In the NYT the text was accompanied by the very polished and polite images taken by Mark Neville for The New York Times. Although these are fine in their own way, and would look good perhaps in some company annual report or government document, they really have no point of contact with the visceral anger of the text.
Miéville’s images may sometimes be blurred and indistinct (in one example beyond the limits of legibility) but their emotion matches the piece splendidly. The NYT presentation is an unholy marriage that traduces both writer and photographer, an example of blatant visual illiteracy, an exhibition of stunning incompetence that should be a hanging – or at least a sacking – offence for the picture editor concerned.
My own My London Diary, as well as my work over the years elsewhere, touches on some of same events and themes that Miéville, though in a my own rather more reserved register.
London in November 2011 – more on My LondonDiary
and more from December 2011 too.