I’ve Lived in East London for 85 1/5 years 

http://martinusborne.com/ive-lived-in-east-london-for-85-12-years-signed/

The book ‘ I’ve Lived in East London for 851/2 years’ is about an old man called Joseph Markovitch who has lived in East London for the whole of this life and has barely left London. He has never had a girlfriend.  Yet Martin said Joseph’s life was colorful and strange. Martin spent 5 years getting to know and photographing Joseph. He dreamed of being a ballerina, he was fascinated by the life of Nicolas Cage and always wanted to live in the amazon. While researching Martin Osborne’s work I didn’t find much information about him apart from the one provided by his own website.

I am looking at Martin Osborne’s work because I think it has links to what I am currently doing. It also fits in with staged vs ‘natural’ documentary photography.  Martin was documenting Josephs life like I am doing with my dad, but in different circumstances. Martins photographs are staged however I think it works well. I am trying to keep my photographs as real as possible therefore I am going to avoid staging any photographs apart from portraits. . I like the use of graffiti in the photographs because its something you associate with younger people so it creates a contrast and make the photograph more visually attractive for the viewer. Martin also photographed objects which or just parts of Josephs body, I think this adds more detail to the story. I am going to try and experiment with this and take photographs of objects which something I haven’t done yet.