I went to see Annalisa Brambilla’s exhibition at the Foundry in East London.   I have to start by saying that I am intrigued by her work, I had never actually seen it but looking at her website is a guilty pleasure.   They portray an intimacy and a psyche of the groups that she portrays and which you immediately feel a part of, they are a completely involving act of voyeurism.   As she herself says she “seeks to defuse the antagonistic element and allows for its replacement by intimacy.”

In the exhibition she is portraying four bodies of work: The Tube, Don’t Shoot The Messenger, Lights and A Quattr’occhi.   On The Tube, Annalisa has taken images of the people on the tube, reading, listening, talking, they are in their own world it is their own private time.   You constantly think about whether they actually knew if they were having their photograph taken, also it is difficult to not question whether you have actually ever seen any of the people yourself or passed them in the street.

In Don’t Shoot The Messenger there are images and details of cycle couriers.   Included with the photographs are fascinating interviews with the couriers where they describe their favourite streets, lobbies, nicknames etc.   It portrays the “people bound together by the shared experience of often hostile city – streets, a dangerous, marginal – job, and lifestyles facilitated and shaped by the interface of beer and bicycle.”   What was fascinating was that at the private view this tribe of people were all grouped together and were only interested in the photographs of themselves – not in any of the other works in the show.   They all wore their trousers rolled up, with special cycling shoes, all with a beer in hand.   What was fascinating was how Brambilla became included in this group, is she a secret cyclist?

The Italian A Quattr’occhi is used to describe a face to face conversation, usually about something important.   Brambilla took a photograph of someone who had a type of relationship with her and asked them to take one of her.   What was fascinating to see was her different expressions and moods with the different people and her different relationships with them.

By the end of looking at the exhibition I felt invigorated and fascinated, it makes you realise that everyone belongs to at least one tribe, it makes you consider how people perceive you and how you perceive others.   Absolutely fascinating.