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The World in One City: Philippe Sibelly’s Multicul-
tural London Photography Project
Read the following passage and answer the related questions
“Where are you from?” is a question Philippe Sibelly has pondered on a lot. Born in Mar-
seilles, Philippe has travelled widely, living in Sydney and Ireland before settling in Lon-
don.
It’s London’s multiculturalism that inspired his World in One City challenge. In 2005, in
the run-up to the announcement that London would host the 2012 Olympics, Philippe
decided to capture that multiculturalism in a photography project.
A year and a half later, Philippe had a set of 202 photographs, representing each of the
countries taking part in the Olympic Games at the time. (Now there are 205). The photos
are all currently on display in Rich Mix in East London. In each Polaroid portrait, the
subject is holding the previous photo, creating a chain, Philippe explains, like the Olym-
pic flame. In view of our own current World in London blog project, I felt I had to go and
meet him.
“At the start, it was really easy,” Philippe says. “I thought, ‘I know people from pretty
much everywhere.’ I tried doing things to challenge people’s perceptions. Karim from
Peru is a refugee from Palestine. So he doesn’t look like he’s from Peru. But he is. And in
the next photo, he’s being held by an Israeli, Maya.”
“But it became more and more difficult. It started taking too long. I spent hours on email-
ing, organising myself with friends, travelling around the city to meet people from differ-
ent places. To New Malden to find someone from South Korea. To Woolwich to meet
someone from Africa…”
“Some days, I’d travel around and only take one or two photos. It was really, really frus-
trating.”
As well as meeting friends of friends and colleagues, Philippe says he also stopped peo-
ple in the street to ask where they were from. “Very few people got annoyed,” he says.
“Really, despite what people say, Londoners are very open. It may be because I’m a for-
eigner myself, but people were open to taking part.”
Looking through the chain of photos is fascinating. Philippe remembers all of them, and
recounts many anecdotes that stand out for him.
There’s Jonas, a monk from the Solomon Islands; Fredi fromMali, a footballer who played
for Tottenham and West Ham. He recounts how top London chef Giorgio Locatelli want-
ed to represent Italy, and about Magdalena from Serbia Montenegro.
Magdalena presents what Philippe finds is an interesting issue. In his project, she rep-
resents a country that no longer exists. Where does she say she’s “from” now? The slight-