Brian Leli

Au Revoir, Paris

Brian Leli — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 16:23:51 +0000

London Festival of Photography 2012

Brian Leli — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:55:46 +0000

I recently submitted these photos for entry in the 2012 London Festival of Photography. Whatever comes of that is fine. But I like the way the photos work as a set and I wanted to post them all together somewhere. So here we are. The photos were taken of strangers on the streets of London, Bogotá, New York and Madrid. They represent my interpretation of the festival’s theme (below).

INSIDEOUT: REFLECTIONS ON THE PUBLIC AND THE PRIVATE
This theme intends to explore the changing boundaries between the public and the private, as both physical and metaphorical concepts, and the social consequences of these shifts. Considering the role of photography as a tool for documentation, expression and collaboration, the festival is looking for work responding to the theme in its broadest interpretation.

The City Is Wilder and Kinder Than You Think

Brian Leli — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:27:36 +0000

Hello. I have a new story up on The Morning News: The City Is Wilder and Kinder Than You Think. I hope the world is treating you well. Have a good day.

From Another Place and Time: AA Bondy

Brian Leli — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 17:36:36 +0000

AA Bondy at Schubas in Chicago on November 10, 2008.

From Another Place and Time: Boris

Brian Leli — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:37:32 +0000

Boris at the Empty Bottle in Chicago on November 29, 2008.

Quickly: Maybe You’re Just a Coward

Brian Leli — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:21:02 +0000

Maybe it’s because you got the impression early on that they didn’t want you around. Maybe it’s because they never said it but you read it in their actions. Maybe this put you a little on edge for the next twenty or thirty years. Whether it was true or not doesn’t even matter. That’s how fucked up and flawed we really are. You know that now. But maybe you’ve known for some time and it’s made it hard to see too far past it. Maybe you’re sometimes so sad because happiness has always felt so fragile and constantly falling apart. Maybe you’re afraid that the warmth will shatter you. And maybe you’re right. But maybe that doesn’t justify the cold. Maybe the cold you feel all around you is the result of a choice you’ve made, and not something you’ve inherited from the Earth. Maybe the dividing lines you’ve drawn are signs of weakness, and not of strength. Maybe the isolation you’ve gravitated toward and cultivated has done you more harm than good. Maybe you’re still just a child running from the trees. Maybe your utilitarian ways are a testament to your sorry attention span. Maybe you’re embarrassed by your lack of knowledge and acumen and that’s the real reason you stay away. Maybe you’re lonelier than you think. Maybe that’s part of the problem. Maybe you’re sad because you’re lonely and you’re lonely because you’re afraid. Maybe you don’t want them around because you’re still so terrified that they don’t want you around, and maybe you just want to beat them to it. Maybe you’re just a coward. And maybe it tears you up a little when they call you brave. But maybe you just need to go for a walk.

After the Riots Stopped

Brian Leli — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:43:21 +0000

London. Twenty-two Scotland Green. Standing behind his new front door in a small barbershop off Tottenham High Road, 89-year-old Aaron Biber sweeps up a pile of hair from where his floor tiles used to be. It is morning, unseasonably warm and quiet. The September sun creeps in through a fresh pane of shatterproof glass, and lights the tiny room. Two men pass through carrying painted-black pieces of wrought iron fence. The men are strong, but they struggle. Even divided into pieces, iron is very heavy, resistant to human force, effective.

It has been nearly two months since rioters smashed through Biber’s doors and windows and tore his 41-year-old shop to pieces, nearly two months since they finally stopped, and went away … Read more at The Morning News.

The People of the Notting Hill Carnival

Brian Leli — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:35:43 +0000

More at the London blog.

I Am Here

Brian Leli — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 11:48:26 +0000

08-22-11 London, UK: 20:42. I am sitting in a small and dimly-lit room. The street outside my window is growing darker, the streetlights glowing brighter. The window is open and the air is cooling for the fall. The music I am listening to is familiar, and that is all tonight’s music needs to be. It is a Monday night in London that started on a Sunday morning in Chicago. I am being held together by the melody and the crisp air.

More at the London blog.

Quickly: Last Night Some Somalis Caught a Break

Brian Leli — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 02:57:27 +0000

Last night some Somalis caught a break. It is not my intent to trivialize the great pain and suffering that continues in their famine-struck country. But small victories can sometimes go long ways. Small victories are sometimes about as big as they come, in fact. Last night the al-Shabab rebels left Mogadishu. They left behind all the wretchedness that they engendered and exacerbated, but they left. They left by the truckload and in the middle of the night as residents poured into the streets and cheered, they left. Just the idea of this fleeting moment gives me chills. On top of the short burst of relief the people must have felt, there is the notion of it coming in the middle of the night, when even the mundane seems sometimes magical. I think it’s safe to assume that we have all experienced at least one moment of elation late in the night. It is something special that the day cannot touch; the day, in all of its cruelty and oblivion, doesn’t even know. I am not in Mogadishu and so I cannot say for sure, but I’ll bet some of those people that ran cheering into the night won’t make it all the way out of this thing. And that is surely not made any less hard by last night’s events. But, in that moment, there was maybe some brief joy that wasn’t there right before it, and that won’t get a chance to be there again after. And that is at least something. It is not enough, but it is something. It’s important to remember that every single thing around us can change in just one second.