Simon Wheatley - Silverlink

Simon Wheatley is a London-based photographer who has become increasingly renowned for his raw and intimate photographic portrayal of the city and its communities. His first book 'Don't Call Me Urban! The Time of Grime' is recognised as one of the most influential UK photobooks of recent times.

As well as highlighting the diverse nature of a capital city, this work is also a love letter to London and the people Wheatley met as he rode north to south, east to west. It’s a tender testament of how people in expansively different situations exist in proximity – this doesn’t only create a divide but a closeness. Some of the first trips he took were to the eastern terminus at North Woolwich – a derelict industrial area near the river Thames. Here he met a man called Barry who had once owned an antiques business in the Portobello Road before losing his shop when new landlords priced him out of his property, as prices soared in the 1980s. His despair had turned him into an alcoholic when Wheatley found him on a bench with strong beverages and exotic foods, reflecting the life he had once known.

"A big part of my photographic work in London revolves around the theme of gentrification, so Barry was perhaps the most poignant encounter,” says Wheatley.

The exhibition will show 21 of Wheatley’s images from the series Silverlink, all shot with the Leica M-System and exclusively printed for Leica Gallery London for the first time. All works are for sale together with signed copies of Simon Wheatley’s book ‘Silverlink’.