Photographer Jim Grover tells Jenny Conlon about his unique project that captures the story of Clapham High Street
I met Clapham resident and photographer Jim Grover at the café in Clapham library. His most recent project 48 hours on Clapham High Street involved spending 48 hours taking photographs to capture life on the street as
it unfolds. As we sifted through each of the 48 photographs in this collection, he explained how this intriguing idea came about. “I like local stories, I like people and I am trying to develop as a photographer and in particular, social documentary photo essays. I’ve lived here for 30 years and I’ve never really explored the High Street, I just walk up and down it occasionally to buy something. I thought, you know what, I’m going to give myself the challenge to try and bring Clapham High Street to life as a photo story, which is actually damn hard”.
Jim Grover Photography
It’s clear to see that the High Street is extremely quiet during the day, which led Jim to the realisation that this was only going to work by telling the omniscient story of the street by both day and night. “There’s not much happening on the street in the middle of the day, there’s almost nobody here so it’s a pretty tough subject. One thing I knew of course, the nightlife here is madness, it’s wild and everyone has heard of Infernos nightclub, people come from all around London to Infernos”.
As Jim talked me through each of the 48 photographs, it became clear there was a very distinctive dichotomy between the photos taken during the day and the photos taken at night. Continue reading…
