After a brief interlude of portraiture, I’m taking you back to my trip to London which primarily was to experience taking some photos for Shokushu Boutique during the Fashion’s Finest piece at London Fashion week.
Following the show, I had the afternoon pretty free to do whatever I wanted. For quite a long time I’d been chatting with a girl from Luton (Mariya) who had started following me on Instagram many months earlier and we had built up a bit of a friendship. Mariya was originally a fitness model, but she had become increasingly interested in being behind the lens and her most recent love was street photography. Knowing I was heading up, we agreed to meet up and to spend the afternoon taking some street shots together. This is a style I love, but I’m super shy and haven’t ever really done it. Mariya is fearless and I figured I’d learn from watching her.
After leaving the Congress Centre I took a stroll down through Soho and Chinatown just to get my eye in. My first few shots are from here, but time was limited and I had to get a move on to get to The Tate where Mariya would be waiting for me.
Marya had spent the morning with a London Street Photography group and had already bagged a lot of good images. Both amusingly and frustratingly, she had taken so many photos her camera had almost run out of power and she’d forgotten a spare battery! I think she only managed a few shots with me before it gave in!
We started off at The Tate, but we’d just missed the best light so took some shots as we walked back over Millennium Bridge toward St Pauls. In honesty, it was just nice to get to know her in person. The afternoon flew by and I was sad to say goodbye at Victoria Station. We agreed we’d meet up again just as soon as we could.
I’d love to link you here to Mariya on Instagram (she has a great account and a beautiful creative eye) but sadly I can’t. One day this summer I woke up to find her Instagram account had vanished to me. I then realised she’d blocked me. She’d done the same on Facebook and What’s App too. No explanation, just blocked. And that sadly was that.
I still don’t know if it was something I did. She had temporarily blocked me once before for a few weeks in February whilst she went travelling for a few days. She never explained this at the time (and I respected her privacy) but my suspicion was that she’d met up with a guy. I suspected the same this time and think she must have decided I might be a problem and to cut me out before I even knew anything was up. If that’s the case, it’s a great shame as it wouldn’t have changed anything and I’d have still been her friend. Yes it would have cut, but I always knew I didn’t stand a chance with her and truthfully, that’s always been my experience with girls my entire life, so why would it have been any different this time?
I do miss the person who I had thought was becoming a good friend. I still have hope I may hear from her yet.
