Beautifully personal portraits of Londoners from every nation under the sun

Date
8 August 2012

In 2006 comedians Owen Powell and Alex Horne set themselves the gruelling task of finding and meeting a citizen from every country in the world currently living and working in London. At the time there were 192 countries officially recognised by the UN – sadly Owen and Alex failed in their task (only by a margin of three) but helped prove to the world that London is one of the most culturally diverse cities out there.

Six years later the number of UN recognised countries stands at an intimidating 204 and there are still people trying to prove that each nationality has a representative in London. This time however the task is being placed in an artistic context rather than a comedic one with The Photographers Gallery inviting 204 different photographers to capture an individual from each nation. Excitingly they’ve now managed to find a Londoner from almost every country in the world (presumably some Tuvaluans have emigrated since Alex and Owen tried to find them) and the portraits are on display in central London until the end of the month, alongside narratives about each of the people photographed. If you’re not London -ased then you can still check out the portraits online using the link below (although based on recent discoveries it looks like everyone lives in London these days).

Above

World In London: India Dane Ngatama May

Above

World In London: Pimjai Ponsawan

Above

World In London: Nahla Al-Ageli

Above

World In London: Mr Chamsi-Pasha

Above

World In London: Omer Nasser

Above

World In London: Samira Hashi

Share Article

About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

It's Nice That Newsletters

Fancy a bit of It's Nice That in your inbox? Sign up to our newsletters and we'll keep you in the loop with everything good going on in the creative world.