Acknowledged as one of the most influential UK photographers of the 21st century, Simon Wheatley emerged as an authoritative chronicler of London’s youth culture with the publication of his book, DON’T CALL ME URBAN The Time of Grime’ in 2010.
Photographed: Crazy Titch and friend
Photographed: Headie One, RV and Abracadabra
Photographed: Roll Deep
Guest Judge for Underground Scenes
Acknowledged as one of the most influential UK photographers of the 21st century, Simon Wheatley emerged as an authoritative chronicler of London’s youth culture with the publication of his book, DON’T CALL ME URBAN! The Time of Grime in 2010. Analysing the social dimensions that gave birth to the UK’s most important musical genre since punk, the mixture of music portraiture, reportage and architectural photography was immediately hailed as a classic.
He has had a long relationship as an ambassador with Leica and has recently been working with the prestigious camera company on the re-release of their legendary M6 film camera, returning to familiar terrain to document the underground of the drill phenomenon which supplanted grime as the voice of the London’s council estates.
In 2022 he published two more books: 'Lost Dreams’ highlighted the role youth clubs played in the birth of grime music and lamented their disappearance in the age of Tory austerity, while the recently released ‘Silverlink’ provides a glimpse into the ambivalence of the Blair years as seen through a train line that traversed the socially polarised inner suburbs of North London. He is currently preparing to publish his next book from the French banlieue, shot in the aftermath of the riots of 2005 during his brief but spectacular spell with the Magnum agency.
In 2018 Simon was invited to be the in-house photographer at London’s Abbey Road Studios where he continues to lend his documentary expertise and cultural relevance.