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Imagine a place where every street corner has a story, where the past and present collide in the most vibrant way possible. That’s Brixton, a buzzing neighborhood in London that’s been through so many changes it feels like a living, breathing character itself. Jan Enkelmann, a photographer who moved here from Germany almost 25 years ago, has seen it all firsthand. With his camera, he’s been capturing Brixton’s spirit, its people, and its ever-evolving vibe for years.

In his photo essay “The Triangle,” Jan takes us on a journey through Brixton, showing us the real heart of the place. It’s not just about buildings and streets; it’s about the people who live there, their stories, and how everything keeps changing yet stays the same. Jan’s been working on this project for seven years, and now he’s ready to share it with the world. Let’s dive into his world and see Brixton through his eyes.

The Triangle

A lot has been said about Brixton’s struggle between regeneration and gentrification. Like other areas around south London, whether it’s Peckham or East Dulwich, Brixton has been undergoing a profound transformation over recent years. The neighbourhood has become unaffordable for many that have lived here all their lives, while it’s attracting a whole new set of people, coming here to live or to visit. Old markets have been completely transformed, new restaurants, clubs and chain stores have sprung up and are forcing out long established businesses, making this an almost textbook example of urban gentrification.

Yet there are few places in London – or indeed anywhere else – that are charged with a spirit and sense of place like the streets and markets around Atlantic Road, Brixton Road and Coldharbour Lane, sometimes referred to as the Brixton Triangle, the beating heart of this community.

Jan Enkelmann has been living in the area ever since he first moved to London from Germany almost 25 years ago. Not only has he been a first-hand witness to the changes happening around him, it’s also a neighbourhood that, he says, has taken him a long time to build a relationship with: “There are days when I feel as much an alien as I did the day I first arrived. I think making pictures is my way of making connections, defining my place among fellow Brixtonians.”

With ‘The Triangle’, Jan has condensed seven years’ worth of photos into a book that he’s planning to publish later this year.

Given Brixton's rich and complex history, how do you navigate capturing the essence of this ever-evolving neighbourhood while also conveying your personal experiences and connections to its past and present?

Like you say, Brixton has had a complex history, often marked by struggles for equality, justice, and self-determination. Many people will know of its large Afro-Caribbean community that settled here when immigrants – mainly from Jamaica and the West Indies – started to arrive in England in the 1940s and 50s, and which has shaped the area over the last 75 years or so and made it culturally very distinct among other south London communities. And most people will have heard about the Brixton riots of 1981, when mainly black youths clashed with the police, which made the news around the world.

But even among the locals only few know very much of its history beyond that. For example, that Brixton was an affluent middle-class neighbourhood in Victorian times with some of London’s first big department stores and many theatres and, later, cinemas, as well as the very first street to be illuminated by electric light in Electric Avenue. Brixton has kept changing its face many times long before the current wave of gentrification.

I’m not trying to make some kind of definite statement about Brixton – or about gentrification. In some way, I’m not even sure I’m trying to make a statement about Brixton at all. Perhaps I’m simply using it to make universal observations that might resonate with viewers even when they have no knowledge about, or connection to the area at all.

But if the work also says something about what makes this part of London and its people so special, then that would be fantastic!

Your work often focuses on observations of people in public spaces. How do you approach photographing individuals within the context of this work, considering Brixton’s diverse community and the social dynamics at play?

A lot of my other work, projects such as ‘Smoking Chefs’, which is documenting chefs during their cigarette breaks in London’s Chinatown, or ‘To the Races’, where I have been photographing people making their way to England’s major horse racing events, are all about capturing a particular group of people in a specific situation.

With each of these projects, I have been looking at certain aspects of society, maybe British society in particular, but always in a way that hopefully doesn’t prescribe to the viewer exactly what they are supposed to think or take away from the photos. All these images were made very much in the street photography tradition, i.e. spontaneous and un-posed.

The photos for ‘The Triangle’ are also partly made-up of candid shots, but most of the portraits, which make up a big part of the work, are posed photos where I have approached strangers in the street and asked them if they would let me take their picture. I say ‘most of the portraits’ because there are images in the series where it’s not immediately clear if the subjects are posing for the camera or not. For me these are among the most captivating and compelling pictures.

I made many portraits for this project and I’m still trying to figure out what it is that makes me approach a particular person. I’m not sure I can really say, but I don’t think it has anything to do with ticking certain boxes of diversity, gender or ethnicity, or the sitter representing a particular stereotype. I suppose I’m looking for individuals that embody a certain character trait that translates into a single image, whether that is determination, vulnerability, resilience, or something less tangible. Of course, I don’t know enough about the individuals to say if any of these things I see in them are true, but there is something in those faces that I find intriguing and I hope that others viewing the photo might see it as well.

Your latest project, ‘Pause,’ offers a glimpse into London during the COVID-19 lockdown. How did this unprecedented period shape your perspective on Brixton, and what insights did you gain about the neighbourhood’s resilience and adaptability during challenging times?

‘Pause’ is a book I made during the early weeks of the covid lockdown, showing an unseen version of London, devoid of people.

I almost avoided making pictures for ‘Pause’ in Brixton because it was one of the very few places in London that still felt busy during the whole of the lockdown period – much more so than anywhere around Central London or the other parts of the city I documented. Maybe it wasn’t as crowded as it usually is, and I guess that was partly because many of the visitors that come to Brixton for the nightlife, the markets and restaurants stayed away. But there definitely was a feeling that people wanted to go about their lives as normally as possible, despite the risk of infection and the rules imposed by the government.

Photographic process

When I started working on this project, I had no idea that it would occupy me for several years. But I wanted it to be a departure from my usual way of working in that I hoped to interact more with the people I’m photographing.

I wanted to shoot in an area close to where I live, where I would be able to get to easily and whenever I wanted to, so I would be able to capture the same locations in different conditions at different times of the day and year. To create some kind of visual consistency, I decided to shoot with just one lens, which was a 50mm prime lens (on a 35mm camera).

The quality of the light played an important role in creating a coherent set of images, which I think is especially true for the portraits. Over time, I figured out where the light was especially good in a particular location at a certain time of day, and I would position myself there, waiting for the ‘right’ individual to come along.

Finally, the editing and sequencing process has taken me a long time, especially as I had so many portraits to choose from. Some photos I really like haven’t made the final edit because they didn’t fit the mood or atmosphere. But now I’m quite happy with the result and maybe I’m ready to move on to the next project.

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