Studio 9 - The Market

After 111 years of serving West London, and having already faced over a decade of uncertainty – including traders overturning a government Compulsory Purchase Order in 2016 and resisting multiple redevelopment and real estate companies – Shepherd’s Bush Market is once again under threat of redevelopment. 

These portraits show the traders, shoppers, and community members of Bush Market. The empty Plot 9 was set up in the tradition of North and West African studio portraiture shops. The backdrop is intentionally ambiguous – vaguely familiar yet placeless – and sitters confidently declare the location: 'this is definitely Bosnia', 'this is just like Algeria, without the statues, beautiful'. But if you look too closely, the scene is glaringly false.