Photojournalism and Documentary Photography: A Foreign Place, Stoke.: Neon East

Strolling through Hanley’s city centre, the high street looked like it would in any other small town in England. Boots to your right, Tesco's to your left and Primark straight ahead. I was on a mission, trying to find something out of the ordinary, an interesting individual, a person with a story or an unusual shop.

As I was walking along the shops I saw a policeman coming my way, so I stopped him and asked if he knew any interesting shops or subjects to photograph around Hanley.

He was happy to help and pointed me in the direction of a near Park, saying I’d find lots of skaters there. I said “thank you very much” and walked towards the skate park.

I must have only walked a few metres when something bright and colourful caught my eye.

The wonky shop sign in front of me spelled “Neon East”, the windows were cluttered with all kinds of peculiar things – Hello Kitties, sparkly accessories, pictures of colourful looking Japanese kids, Pokemons, Sonic from Sega and much more – my inner child was already pressing its nose against the window, so I couldn’t resist and take a peek inside.

I walked straight up to the shop keeper, introduced myself and asked her if I could possibly take some photographs for my assignment. She didn’t mind at all.

Before I started shooting I had to check out the shop and have a snoop around for personal reasons ;)

Oh, and I was in luck, there were some definite keepers to be found.

After my shopping round I had a go at the lucky dip, which is a basket full of little treasures wrapped in newspaper. For only 50p one gets to put a plastic crocodile glove on ones hand to then dive into the basket to try ones luck.

I won some vampire teeth and some pink hair accessories.

Louise who owns the shop tells me it has always been her dream to open her own little shop, then 2 years ago when she and her daughter went on a trip to Japan they were so amazed and excited by Japanese popculture and Japan’s street style that they decided to look more into that. The colourful street style associated with Japan came about during the 1990’s when Japan went through a recession. The kids couldn’t afford expensive designer clothes so they started to be inventive and dressed themselves in anything colourful and cheap they could find. They’d take old children's clothes and cut them up and in doing so created a funky new style mixing punk, goth, lolita, western fashion and kids clothing.

When the recession hit the UK last year, Louise decided it was finally time to open her shop, she wanted to make fun and affordable fashion available to kids in the UK.

Louise uses plain items of clothing and alters them to give them their unique funky look.

Her friends told her to go to Camden Town in London with her idea, but she figured, as the market in London is already booming she’d be better off staying in Staffordshire, where there was no such thing yet. So 6 months ago she opened Neon East.

At first the shop didn’t even bring in enough money in to cover the expenses, nowadays it just covers the costs, but leaves nothing for Louise and her staff. She doesn’t mind though, as this shop is her greatest passion and a dream come true.