LOVE IT OR HATE IT
“The most wonderful thing in life is to be delirious and the most wonderful kind of delirium is being in love. In the morning mist, hazy and amorous, London was delirious. London squinted as it floated along, milky pink, without caring where it was going.” ― Yevgeny Zamyatin.
the walkie talkie
20 Fenchurch Street, commonly known as the Walkie Talkie, is a commercial skyscraper in the London financial district completed in 2014. The 38-story building is 160 m (525 ft) tall, mostly occupied by office spaces, and has at the top of the structure a beautiful sky garden, set over floors 35, 36 and 37, offering uninterrupted views across London skyline along a selection of different restaurants and bars. Originally designed by architect Rafael Viñoly, and costing over £ 200 million, the project went under several design changes and alterations before being finished, so much so that the original creator distanced himself from the building, stating "My name is on it, but it's not my building". However, during the first hot sunny days the curved exterior walls shined a heath ray that melted the plastic parts of a car parked bolow, a huge problem that already affected other past designs made by Rafael Viñoly.
more arts and fun, more people
Camden’s population during a regular workday doubles in size to more than 530,000 people, including 71,000 domestic and overseas tourists. Here there are more than 3,700 cultural and creative industries firms, employing roughly 40,500 people and representing 16% of all local jobs, generating almost two job opportunities for every resident of working age.
a rich city all around
London is an expensive city, and the cost of living here is pretty high compared to other places, but the city also has some of the highest numbers of billionaires in the world, with over 70 of them residing here. Could you tell that from the city look?
the local streetart scene
Graffiti was originally an act of vandalism infused with passion and communication, something that created generations of rebels and creators, something that was chose by some and randomly caught by others. A movement from the underground that stormed the hearts of all kids of souls while growing the criminal record of some others. Nowadays cities promote and select the urban planning of street art galleries and often use graffiti artists to re-evaluate bad looking buildings and complexes. Just to remember us that the world is always spinning keeping things moving.
vibes all over the place
The vibe and the atmosphere of this city has always had a tangible energy for me. Every corner and prospective radiates with energy, vibrations for the soul and a smell of many great stories. Old & new always over passing each other carrying with them the memories of many lovely and fucked up moments.
IS LONDON REALY THAT RAINY?
London is widely known for being a rainy grey city, and Italians often use this point while arguing about the best cities, but in reality London actually sees less rain than Roma, Sydney, Miami or Tokyo, both in terms of volume and number of rainy days. Yes you heard that right, London is dryer than Roma, go checks some datas if you don’t believe it.
LONDON’S FASHION SCENE
The direct value of the United Kingdom fashion industry is a massive £21 billions and supports an estimated 830,000 jobs, making it the UK’s largest creative industry. Unlike most of the other European countries, here you can wear a black trash bag as a dress and almost nobody will care, actually you may get some compliments about it.
NEXT TO CANDEM TOWN
Residential development around Primrose Hill has created one of the more fashionable & sought after districts in London between the centre and the suburbs. The hill and the area has been a popular place to live for a large number of writers, musicians and artist, including the beatles, while Mother Shipton, England’s most famous prophetess of the 16th century, said that when London shall surround Primrose Hill the streets of the metropolis will run with blood.
THE CONGESTION CHARGE
If you drive your motor vehicle in central London between 07:00 and 18:00, Monday to Friday, you will incur in a 11,50£ daily extra tax called congestion charge. Introduced in the early 2003 it aims to reduce the local traffic situation, lower the noise and air pollution while also making some extra money for the city.
THE NEW EUROPEAN NYC
London is such an amazing place for street photography and reportages, kinda like a European New York City, in the sense of a place where you can find all kinds of interesting and weird stuff happening thru out all the city, contrasts everywhere, strong subcultures realities, a vibrant street life and also tons of tangible stories at every corner. A great place for any life composer as much as for all the life listeners.
A NEW LIFE FOR THE AREA
The Stable Market was once a network of stable blocks, horse tunnels, saddler’s workshops, tack rooms, and a fully operational horse hospital. At the time horses were used to pull barges down the canals and an on-site horse hospital was needed in order to prevent any working delay, while also keeping the animal available on the spot at any time. The very last shunting horse was withdrawn from duty in 1967 and the depot was closed in 1980.
THE TOWER BRIDGE
It was officially opened in 1894 by the prince and princess of Wales, future King Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark. The bridge is 240 meters in length with two towers each 65 meters high, built on piers. The central span of 61 meters between the towers is split into two equal bascules, which can be raised to an angle of 86 degrees to allow river traffic to pass underneath it. It took eight years to be completed with a cost of £1,184,000 at the time, which is the equivalent of £152,616,515.39 of 2019.
THE CITY NOISES
Sampling city sounds while writing cyber beats. Increasing my personal sound library by recording all kind of interesting noise from my adventures. I’m still properly learning the software, but finally now I can focus on making my vibes instead of spending hours searching for something vaguely similar on the internet.
Whatever it is
“I believe that we, every day, 24/7, all the days of our lives, we are, all of us, agents of construction and agents of destruction.” • Guillermo Del Toro.
THE CITY GIVE, THE CITY TAKE
“Sometimes you need to milk the cow a lot to get a little bit of cheese”• Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Whatever it is
Where do you feel most at home? Are you currently building something Important for you? Or you are just entertaining yourself at all time? Just stop and really think about it for a minute.
TAKING INSPIRATION FROM AROUND
Building my new personal portfolio after almost ten years of daily projects feels like a crazy psychedelic time machine. Doing it on a bench in front of the Tate Modern, like when I was a teen, is also lighting some interesting sparks in my brain (can you imagine living in a lovely located house like that one?). Are you ready to explore my virtual atelier folks? Coming soon: new daily Blog, weekly Youtube videos, prints & zines, paintings & watercolors, travel guides, Urbex diaries, & merch!
THE TELEVISION AKA TV
Today Soho is still home to many media companies and that’s not surprising considering that this neighborhood hosted the world’s first demonstration of a working television. John Logie Baird, a Scottish inventor & engineer, changed forever the way we comunicate by transmitting the first television picture with tone grading, in front of 40 members of the Royal Institution in January 1926. Two years later Baird also sent a picture across the Atlantic demonstrating colour television for the first time.
LIFE TO FANTASY, FANTASY TO LIFE
Choose your children’s games properly: When I was a little kid one of my favorite ones was a miniature wargame that simulates complicated battles between armies on a medieval/fantasy themed playing field that you could build yourself. My first ever scale model of a building was based on this British homes, and all of my sculpting skills came after years of scenery making for this amazing table game called Warhammer. Nowadays I’m using the same skills and fun to build miniature sculptures & dioramas of real world places, in order to tell better stories while recreating places that are about to disappear. What about your childhood inspiration folks?
OSCAR WILDE ON LONDON Society
“Oh, I love London Society! It is entirely composed now of beautiful idiots and brilliant lunatics. Just what Society should be.” - Oscar Wilde.
ALL KINDS OF JOBS
Are you a business man, an employee, or an entrepreneur? It seems like everyone nowadays call themselves an entrepreneur, but most of them are just bad business people catching a trend while joining a status group. What happened to the work itself? That should show your skills & abilities, not your Insta bio. I want to see what you actually do, not what you think you do.
HISOTRIC CANALS EVERYWHERE
The UK was the first country to acquire a nationwide canal network, dating back to Roman Britain. The modern network was built to fit the Industrial revolution during the 18th century, adding a reliable way to transport goods & commodities in large quantities.
THE MOOD WHILE NEAR THE WATER
Metropolitan areas full of waterways are one of my favorite locations. Nothing is more inspiring & relaxing at the same time like those kinds of atmospheres. How are you Camden people?
EUROPE’S TALLEST BUILDING
London’s skyline is dominated by The Shard, Europe tallest building at 309.6 meters. It is the 59th tallest building in the world at the moment, roughly 2.7 times shorter than the tallest, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, standing at 829.8 meters.
THE OLYMPICS RESIDENCE
After 2012 London Olympics, London became the first city to host the Olympic Games thrice
THE OLD EUROPEAN CAPITAL
London was the capital city of six countries at the same time during World War II & Hitler’s attacks: The in exile Polish government, Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France, found security in this safe haven at the time.
STREET PHOTOGRAPHY ROUTINES
While filming street scenes it’s always a visual bummer when someone who’s crossing my frame apologize for doing so. However, every time I’m shooting street photos I always analyze people’s paths in order to “accidentally” made them cross my frame in an almost controlled way. In that case I love that second when their apologies meets my eyes thru the shutter.
DID YOU KNoW THIS STUFF?
While birdwatching in St.James’s Park I realized something completely absurd. Most of the big birds here have had their wings pinioned or clipped. What’s that you might ask? Pinioning is an operation that involves amputating the end of a young bird’s wing in order to prevent them from flying away when their fully developed. Is this royal park really a nature reserve & sanctuary, or it’s just another tourist machine taking advantage of the 17 species of birds that regularly breed in the park?
THE CITY PARKS
CELLNET N’2317: Another session of color sampling in the streets of Sorrento looking for all kinds of yellow, both direct tones and bounced once. What are you up to folks ?
EN PLEIN AIR PAINTING
CELLNET N’2314: Somewhere a lemon is just a simple and common citrus fruit, here instead lemons are much more similar to the figure of your favorite Hollywood stars. Without all the abuse and Luciferian practices of course. (Continues in part II)
THE OLD HUNTING GROUND
CELLNET N’2316: Sampling local tones of yellow in order to properly calibrate all the related graphics & paintings I’m making for this reportage. All kinds of tones of yellow are everywhere here in Costiera Sorrentina, love it.
THE VIEW OVER THE CITY
Street photography session in the lovely streets of Sorrento, plus more color sampling’s. How are ya folks?
LONDINIUM AND ROMA
In the mid-1st century the city of London was a Roman settlement called Londinium, and it occupied a small area roughly equivalent to the size of present day Hyde Park. By the turn of the century Londinium was rebuilt as a planned Roman town growing to about 60,000 people, becoming Great Britain’s largest city.
FREE STUFF EVERYWHERE I GO
No one joined my last giveaway so now I have a bunch of free prints to hide around the city, hoping that some strangers will find it before the rain hits it. Do you want some free art? Just support my works & help me fight the instagram algorithm by sharing my page on your feed. The best supporter will get a special mystery box for free (including originals).
DON’T MISS THE DETAILS
“Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration’s shove or society’s kiss on your forehead. Pay attention. It’s all about paying attention. Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager.” •Susan Sontag.
DON’T KNOW WHERE TO GO
Black cab drivers here in London are basically human street maps. In order to become one of them, you must complete a very meticulous test called “The knowledge”, which involves memorizing every single street & landmark in the capital. Professional wanderers & drivers, very different from your Uber who has no clue about the soul of the streets and can’t take you nowhere without a GPS. Just don’t ride next to them if you cruise on a bicycle!
exploring the streets
Another day walking thru the streets of London with my camera. People, cars, stores, buildings, everything becomes part of the picture, but mostly it’s all about the conversation between the subject and what I brought into my mind that specific day.
SUGGEST ME ANYTHING interesting
What’s your best advice for me? In the last years I have been trying to start a dialogue with you folks from all over the world, but it seems like all I’m getting out of this app is just a few non genuine comments looking for more followers. Any tips for my non trendy brain?
TVZDVDZV
The old mini fish-eye lens for my cellphone doesn’t attach properly on my new phone, but I can fix that with a couple of tools. No more extra lenses for today but at lest I don’t need to buy a new one tomorrow. What’s up London?
higher power, whatever that means
“A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.”
• Jorge Louis Borges.