Stories about London, Culture & Creativity

This week I have a guy I’ve known for years and watched his rise, K or as some of you may know him as Kemo SMT and his also for the last couple years, The London Vagabond.

He came round with his girlfriend Dana, a creative also and we had a great conversation about his introduction to the graffiti culture through his dad whilst he was in primary school and what life was like growing up in Ruislip at the end of the central line. We chat about education but he explains also how graffiti took over.
K has had many run ins with the law over the last 10 years and it started in a dramatic way and he tells us about that and how prison was. We chat about his years of graffiti court cases and more prison time but he also had a the massive positive impact that the culture had on his life and we talk about that what he learnt about himself and the run up to his photography and what that’s brought him already.

K’s been out for 8 months since his last stint in Prison, I think that’ll be his last so it was great being able to have this chat after such a crazy decade, now on his journey into his future.. this is K’s London, culture and creativity story. Enjoy.

Harry Conway is a photographer, used to be a graffiti writer labelled The Million Pound Vandal by the UK press and is from Kensal Rise. He’s run through a couple cultures on his route to creativity. He’s a big lad, covered in tattoos, sports a vest in the summer months and could be intimidating if you saw him jump out on you on the Bakerloo line with his camera but when chatting to him it breaks down all perceptions and it was really cool chatting to him about his influences and experiences in his story about London, Culture and Creativity.

This week’s conversation is with Jamal Peace. I met Jamal about 8 years ago and immediately noticed he carried loads of energy and although he wasn’t doing what he would end up doing currently, I knew he was on a journey that was to include culture and creativity. We chat about travels abroad and living in other countries in his youth with the family, going back and fourth to London and roaming the city. Living up to the working class notion of getting a trade and then finding creativity through culture. Jamal’s story is dope, he’s a travel bug, a creative and for the people. Enjoy!

This weeks chat is with Andrew Gillman, he is an artist, photographer and explorer.  I met Andrew in the early 2000’s in Brighton, where I was living at the time. He was writing graffiti and his name was known widely, it was one of those, real pleasure to meet you mate!. His crew was doing the do in the culture and watching the events that unfolded over the following years was intriguing, thought provoking, conversation starting and emotional. Andrews story so far is crazy, I really appreciate him coming over and having this conversation and letting us know how he dealt with all that came with his lifestyle and what he is doing and producing now. This is his London, Culture and Creativity story. Enjoy!

This week’s conversation is with Will Robson Scott, a British photographer living in New York. I’ve known Will for a good decade now and was really happy to get to sit down and chat about his journey so far. Will tells us about growing up in London and New York, getting into skating and graffiti and finding music. We chat about school and maybe the lack of it, distracted by culture Will found himself having to make a decision and a photography course presented itself and his journey with creativity started. Dope chat, really funny and a pleasure to have him round. This is his London, Culture and Creativity story.