EALING'S Pop Up Gallery located at Ealing Broadway shopping centre reopened its doors at a bigger venue last month.

Several new artists have joined the original group and now proudly display their work at the gallery next to Tesco.

One of these is photographer, Solomon (commonly known as Sol) N'Jie, who lives near Ealing Common and is the owner of Iconic Rock Photos.

In the 80s Sol was heavily involved with the rugby club and played for Wasps 1st XV.

As part of their fundraising effort in 1980, some of the players were asked if they wanted to steward at Wembley stadium and raise money to support the rugby club.

Before he knew it, Sol ended up working as part of the security team at Wembley stadium for a decade.

During his time there, many famous music stars took to the stage and performed in front of thousands of people.

As the years went on, Sol decided he wanted to have some souvenirs to remember his time working as part of the crowd safety team.

advertisement

He told Nub News: "I always knew this wouldn't last forever, so I had to get some souvenirs.

"I decided to buy myself a camera and set about teaching myself how to take photos, instead of just buying merchandise from the gigs."

Photography isn't a skill that can just be learnt overnight, so Sol spent a great deal of time improving his talent.

During those days (1980s) photographers were allowed in the pit (the section right in front of the stage) for only the first three numbers, but because of his job as the crowd safety manager, Sol had free access and was positioned perfectly to take photos during any part of the shows.

He managed to take over 500 photos of iconic stars such as Freddie Mercury, Madonna, Prince, George Michael, David Bowie, Meat Loaf and Tina Turner among others.

He set up a dark room in his house and went about developing the photos from film himself, instead of having to send them off each time.

"It got to a point where I did everything myself, from start to finish," he said.

"These photos are a testament to those wonderful times."

In 2019, Sol contacted Getty Images and they 'jumped' at the opportunity to list these photos as 'they're a snapshot in time', selling them to commercial organisations and media outlets.

Upon closer inspection of his contract however, Sol realised he was also allowed to sell directly to the public too.

"That's when I got involved with the Pop Up Gallery and people can now buy prints of the original photos," he added.

This is a part-time job for Sol who spends a lot of his time with Wasps rugby where he's the president, runs a cycling club and is a trustee of a charity as well.

You can see Sol's work at the gallery every day from 11am-5pm.