The Hanwell Project
A Lockdown Photography Project in the pretty London Suburb of Hanwell.
In February 2020, my girlfriend (now wife) and I moved into a small flat in a little-known suburb of London called Hanwell. It was our very first home together after share houses. I was about to start a new job in the travel industry. Life felt like it was full of possibility and something new was around every turn. Like everyone else at the time, little did we know something very new was just around the corner.
“Hanwell?” “Where's that?” It was always the response when we told people where we were moving to. Hanwell was once the Westernmost point of London, and it's still the most western suburb with a W postcode, W7. It is located in the Borough of Ealing, between West Ealing to the East, the River Brent to the West, Greenford to the North and Brentford to the South. It is a pretty suburb with many parks and is most famously the birthplace of Marshall Amps.
By 12th March I no longer had a new job. Fortunately, my wife worked in a key industry so we could get by. Then on 23rd March, we were all locked down. Like lots of people, I was at a loss of what to do. We had our daily walks, which were a godsend. Being in a new and unknown suburb of London meant every walk was a small moment of discovery.
Like most people at this time, I needed to find a creative outlet to focus on something new. After discovering how beautiful this unknown part of London was, I decided to start to document it with my old camera I'd bought years ago after a fleeting desire to be a photographer. I watched YouTube videos on how to take good pictures and learnt the basics of Lightroom. Then I set about undertaking my first ever photography project, The Hanwell Project.
All the photos were taken using a Canon EOS M and shot using either a Canon 18-55mm F/3.5-5.6 IS STM EF-M Mount Lens or a Sigma 10-20mm f/4-5.6 EX DC HSM.