Vendor Interview: Michael

Photos: Emil Lombardo

How did you get involved in selling DOPE Magazine?

Well, I was going to Whitechapel Mission, which is the place where I have breakfast, because I don't have proper cooking facilities where I am. I was a bit pissed off with the inflated price of the Big Issue, so when I saw people selling a new mag, I thought, yeah, I’ll give it a go. So I came to Freedom, got a whole bundle, and I was able to sell it – I thought it was pretty good.

What did you like about DOPE magazine?

I did like the art. I did like the fact that it wasn't overly formal. Um, I kind of like the casualness of it, and I do like the captivating covers, the slogans, and all the sort of graphics. I look at it from an art point of view rather than just a lucrative one. So, I appreciate the effort that's gone into the graphics, which are very captivating. It makes customers really interested in the paper, rather than having people buying it because they feel sorry for the vendor.  Now with DOPE magazine, people are actually quite interested in taking it and reading it.

How has selling DOPE been useful to you?

You see, people often believe that we sell the magazine because we're inundated by our drugs and alcohol, vices or something like this. No. Right, what I like about it is that I'm a businessman, and I'm learning to be self-employed. And the thing I enjoy about the Big Issue, and about DOPE, is that it allows me to see what it is like to have a marketing sense of a product and being self-employed and not being restrained by all the conventional things that people have to go through in a job. I like the hours. I like the freedom. So my way is selling papers and then trying and doing a bit of art here
and there.

Can you tell me more about your paintings?

We used to go to parties in big country places through friends of friends that had houses. And, at one of these parties, I found a little book by Patrick Moore on constellations and it got me into astronomy. So, I bought another book on constellations and started painting from the book.  Uh, but now I want to actually go on-site to see the stars I have studied in these books. And I'm going to go “okay, that's that month, that's that part of the world, that's the constellation.” I want to take a photo or a film of it, paint the photograph or actually blow the photograph up and then just do a print of the constellations. So, that's the next stage. Well, dreams, I mean, I've always had dreams to do this and the next time I do that and whatever. It just makes my life a bit more interesting.