As part of the Making Space for Art series of talks at Royal Holloway, photographer John Perivolaris discusses the portraits he has been making since 2011 under the Shoreditch Bridge in London.

'Perivolaris captures passers-by who are both anonymous and transient, in a fleeting moment as they move between places. This moment of stillness, particularly in the enormity of a city, is absolutely crucial and raises several questions for Perivolaris, including “Where do we find stillness in cities and what does stillness mean in our continuous transit through, or between, public, marginalised, and increasingly corporatised urban spaces?” Then, there’s the bridge itself, heavy in both material and shadow, weighing both literally and metaphorically over the local landscape. These photographs are all about the taking of place.' (Excerpt from an interview with Jeffery Saddoris in Faded and Blurred.)

John Perivolaris has received commissions to work on major photographic projects in the UK and internationally. Often collaborative, his projects use photography, text, and related media to reflect on diasporic states of being. Revealing how places are layered by time, his work is concerned with how the past is regenerated, the existential use of knowledge and memory, and how meaning is formed through migration, travel and our attachment to specific locations.

Introduction by Professor Giuliana Pieri (Head of the School of Humanities, Royal Holloway).

Chair: Cecilie Sachs Olsen (Department of Geography, Royal Holloway)

This talk was delivered on 19 October 2016. 

Please click on the video to listen to the talk. 

You can view the transcript here. 

These talks were recorded for Royal Holloway by Backdoor Broadcasting. (Image used for video by Jonathan Farber.)