The Guardian at the end of last month published an interesting audio slideshow with Stephen McLaren talking about his five-year project documenting the City of London after the 2008 financial crisis, Moral Hazard.
McLaren is one of the most interesting to emerge in a new generation of ‘street photographers’, though the genre is perhaps largely meaninless, and I think it belittles his work to call him a street photographer, with so much that is now included under that title being puerile graphic observations.
What distinguishes Mclaren’s work – not that it lacks graphic interest, is an underlying seriousness of purpose. It is (as one photographer whose opinion I valued once said about my own work) “about something.” Behind the often amusing or even startling sights he records there is a an intelligence. These are not isolated aperçus but a project worked out over repeated visits to the streets of the City, building on each other.
As well as the images on the Guardian you can see more of McLaren’s work on his web site. I”d particularly recommend his ‘East End‘ and look forward to seeing more of his ‘Scotia Nova‘ and there are images in ‘Westcostism‘ that I love. But all of the projects are worth looking at.