'Shutting up shop' - John Londei

I've just finished looking and enjoying John Londei's work 'Shutting up shop' The decline of the traditional small shop (1). And I've been trying to work out why I like his images so much.

Interestingly, I could not find any critique of his images - the interest that I found through desktop research focused on the concept of the project and its contribution to our understanding of the decline of small shop retailing during the 1970s and 1980s.

Londei's images were captured over a period of fifteen years across the country using a 10 x 8 plate camera.Each image is accompanied by a detailed and entertaining pocket history of the shop and quotes from the current owners/ workers. His project finished in 1987 but in 2004 he set about updating his work; discovering what had happened to the shops, the businesses and the people he had met earlier.This became the 'Afterword' at the end of the book and I am so glad that he did this as it perfectly rounded off the project.

But why did I like this work?
I guess that the images resonated for me not only for the often richness of image but also for the fact that they reminded me of shops that I visited during that time.

© John Londei   Chemist, 1973

I started my first Saturday job cleaning shelves and cabinets like the ones in Morrison's Chemist above..

© John Londei Tea Merchant, 1982

 

© John Londei  Kiosk, 1978

And I bought sweets from this little shop in my home town..(The Pier, West Kiosk, Worthing).

 

© John Londei  Fishmonger, 1984

The subjects of the pictures stare directly out at the camera. They look serious, sometimes a little watchful. You see them behind their counters, in front, in the doorway of their shops or standing outside. They are small, sometimes seem almost insignificant within their world. Londei deliberately waited until there were no customers around ..and I wonder why?  Maybe capturing any interaction between shopkeeper and customer took the attention away from the relationship between the shop and shopkeeper(s). As would any close up that focused on the face of the shop keeper...

And so it comes back to why I like this work...it comes down to the concept rather than execution or composition, I like the richness of image and the richness history captured ..a bygone age 'snapped as it almost melted away before his eyes..

(1) Londei,John. (2007) Shutting up shop. Stockport: Dewi Lewis Publishing