London 1967: A Photo Essay

It is easy to romanticize the good old days, with new music in the streets and the new fashion seen in Carnaby Street. That summer Ninni and I came to London. The mind was bright and confidence was there. This was not only a time of hustle and bustle. It was also a time of strong tensions between the countries of the world. England had not fully recovered after World War II. Europe had rose from the ashes. The music was playfully happy. The fashionable pastel colored skirts were over the knee short. On the streets there were musicians. That was before the vegetable market, Covent Garden became a tourist trap. There were still hard work of transshipment and transportation, and wholesale trade. Among all men, women were rarely seen here, there were even children who drove carts. We took the subway to Covent Garden several days and we thought it was fun to see the process of loading and unloading of horticultural products and flowers. It was toast and bacon for breakfast with fried sausages and eggs. Everything was served by tuxedo dressed men. The hotel was not a luxury one, but a pretty little house sandwiched among three-story houses. I had to change the shirt every day because the collar was black by smoke in the air. Our strolling around in this city for many weeks, with our cameras, Minolta SR7 and Leica M2, led to quite a number of interesting photographs in black and white or color. We have selected out some photos from this London, and it’s not the shiny glossy bank palaces we see today.