Afterword

The photographs in Métier are each little discoveries of ways of life and of making a living in London today. There are portraits of people in their workspaces – often looking into the camera, at times glancing up from the work they are doing. There are pictures of the spaces in which they work, and of the objects they are surrounded by, seen either up close or from some distance. They are intimate scenes. The book emerged from photographer Laura Braun’s meandering engagement with different types of small and micro-business traders across London over several years. The photographs in this collection tell us something about how she has been looking at the city, paying attention to the unremarked and the unseen. They show us what she has spotted on excursions along unknown streets and through chance encounters. And together with the stories that accompany the images, we see how she has been captivated by the people she has met, who in turn have allowed her to capture a moment from their lives for this collection.