ZHIYAN LIUPhotography

The Shop Keeps Time

2026—
East Ham, East London
Ongoing

The Shop Keeps Time is a documentary photography project about independent shopkeepers of South Asian heritage in East Ham, East London.

Through portraits, interior details and quiet observations, the work explores how labour, migration and time shape a sense of belonging. In these shops, public places of trade gradually become lived-in spaces, marked by routine, personal objects and the traces of repeated use.

An older shopkeeper seated among hardware supplies, stacked baskets and boxes beneath a wall clock.
A smiling butcher in a white coat and black gloves, standing by a wooden chopping block with poultry hanging behind him.
A shopkeeper standing at the counter of a narrow clothing shop lined with jackets and hats.
A shopkeeper reaching across a display of fruit outside a shop with a colourful fruit-patterned wall.