The World in London

The gallery has planned a major public art project set to coincide with the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games which will see 204 commissioned photographic portraits of 204 Londoners, originating from one of the 204 countries represented at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 

These will all be exhibited as large scale posters in east London’s  Victoria Park, and in the Ramillies Street pedestrian zone opposite The Phographers’ Gallery in Soho.

Exhibition The World in London is a look at cultural diversity in London through the lenses of leading and emerging national and international photographers.

All of the commissioned photographs have been taken in the last three years. Among the subjects are Judith, a young mother from Haiti, photographed with baby, and Snezana, a Russian women, captured on her Thames River Houseboat, wrapped in a blanket, wearing pick slippers, backdropped by bare branched trees in winter.

A poignant image of the late Alexander McQueen was commissioned as the UK entry, taken by American photographer Andres Serrano. 

The project is incomplete though; the gallery is still looking for six Londoners from American Samoa, FS Micronesia, Guam, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau.

The World in London takes place in Victoria Park E3, from 27 July – 12 August, and in Soho outside The Photoographers’ Gallery Ramillies Street, W1 from 27 July – October