Cultures seem to divide; cultures of different ethnicities and life customs, or even of different ages. But as we observe them when they come in contact, don't we find out that our meanings of essential difference are forced perceptions and specific social constructions, which we can easily contest?

One September afternoon I found myself between two main cultures, Caribbean and English. In reality, many smaller 'cultures' appeared within. All this in one of the most socially neglected, ghettoised, non-white neighborhoods of Leeds with a well-known bad reputation attached to it.

But for one day, during the Caribbean festival, all the common routine of distance and separation was reversed! Similarities and personal histories of a common feeling and understanding surfaced to challenge the stereotypes.

It remains an issue whether the celebration of difference and commonality ever develops further than a carnivalistic, temporal and consumerist sentiment. In this case a Camusean 'stranger' myself there, I tried to observe. This was my first photo-essay completed in 2001, part of which was included in a group exhibition in Leeds Art Gallery. Here is accompanied by my own writings though the photography could also be approached independently from the text.