“ Buskers ”

Buskers, 2018

There have been performances in public places for gratuities in every major culture in the world, dating back to antiquity. Busking is common among some Romani people. Romantic mention of Romani music, dancers, and fortune-tellers are found in all forms of song poetry, prose, and lore. The Roma brought the word busking to England through their travels along the Mediterranean coast to Spain and the Atlantic Ocean and then north to England and the rest of Europe. Performances are anything that people find entertaining. Performers may do acrobatics, clowning, puppeteering or reciting poetry or prose, street art such as sketching and painting, but the most common ones are Musicians. Although I was not doing ‘The Buskers’, I was after a project on two different Tube Stations. I was not happy with the pictures when I took some long exposer shots of commuters on two other tube stations. So, I decided to skip different stations but do something similar with some context. Later that day, I saw a busker at Elephant and castle station. While passing him, I wondered why buskers entertain the passing crowds. People who don’t care about them, some spare them change, some ignore and pass by. However, they keep on singing and playing their music. I decided to do a project on it. I opened my tripod and took a long exposure shot which gave an image of the passing crowd and a moving image as I imagined. Later I took a series of four buskers with the same moving people in different locations. Moreover, I found interesting everyday things about them, like their melodious voices and tuneful music. That gave me a question.

WERE ALL BUSKERS MUSICIANS, OR ARE THEY JUST HOMELESS PEOPLE?