#19: Travelogue: 1692 Photos in London
By Haadi Nur / Life / Creative Researcher
In the first 24 hours of landing, while walking through the streets of Notting hill, with a duffel bag over my shoulder and my single carry-on, I couldn’t stop my brain from drawing parallels between London and the city my brain grew familiar with — New York City. But as the days went on, it became clear to me that in their similarities it was also just as different. Both cities shared so many talented people and cultures. Spending the last two years in NYC, in almost all the dialogues of fashion, music, and all things culture, it was starting to feel like most arrows were pointing in the direction of London. And with excitement, ambition, and a million questions, the currents of curiosity navigated me to the streets of London itself. I jumped into the city with the mentality of a student. There was plenty to learn. In a paradoxical way, the campus felt big and small at the same time. There were magnitudes of talent compressed into a single space that made it feel small. All four corners garnered their own communities of talented individuals, all ambitiously working towards creating their own movements.
It was my first time physically in London, but it felt familiar, like I'd been there before. It felt like an actualization of existing conversations that have been in motion over the last three years. I was walking in spaces that I have virtually witnessed get developed. I was standing in the results.
London is a place of discipline. The locations my day would take me would always be random, but they would always end the same. Me and Raza would unwind and recap for an hour in the loud 33 bus, riding down roads of Lonsdale struggling to hear one another over the rattles of the bus’ metal frame and glass windows. Each conversation has enough substance and material to birth its own paragraph - but those will be stories for another time. On one specific night, we discussed how creative executions that are produced on the basis of simply being inspired, were rookie, and how artists that mature in their development create from a place of discipline. What differentiated the professionals is the realization that inspiration isn’t a platform that’s stable enough to create on. It comes in fluctuating waves. They’re very honest waves that reflect our real-life timelines, however, they’re still inconsistent. No one man creates a movement that changes the world or the world around them with inconsistent efforts. With discipline, there’s a need for a schedule to be in place. A schedule of doing. Not waiting or thinking, but doing. Sometimes failing but then shortly after, doing again. It was that about London that I admired, I felt like more people were doing. Paired with their ambitions, there was action. Their imagination was vivid. For those working on their movements, they knew exactly what the picture of the end result looked like. And exactly what needed to be in place for them to get there.
In the 8 days I was there, the theme of that conversation followed me. In South London, it was being enforced in conversations with Raza’s father. He shared with us a story about how he knew the exact specs of the silver Porsche Carrera he wanted months before he was in a position to even afford one. Later on it was enforced in Northwest in conversation with Jamal, of 99byjms, whilst in dialogue about brand growth and world-building, he mentioned that “Although we’re standing having this conversation in October of 2023, I know exactly what I would be giving the world in October of 2024.” That was important to me. That level of vividness in planning and scheduling was important. Many more conversations about that exact theme happened in London’s streets, bus stops, restaurants, Ubers, parties, museums, stores, and even masjids. Most of them taking place with Sahn. I boarded the plane back to America with that exact reminder.
I’m in California currently writing this in November 2023. With only two months of the year left, I reflect on how a chunk of this year was curated around this specific trip. It served as a North Star. In the enhancement of my learnings, creatively and as a person, there’s always a guaranteed feeling of pride, that comes with honoring one’s own promises, and with executing an idea. This newsletter will one day serve as a timestamp. To not only how far we’ve come but also, how much work we still have left to do. A life long full of it. There’s conversations that haven’t happened yet with people we haven’t met, in cities we haven’t been to, but our greatness is already written. We just got to keep doing, until it all catches up.
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