Head to the Mosaic Rooms on Cromwell Road for a rare exhibition featuring photos from Israel this month.

From Palestine to Israel: A Photographic Record of Destruction & State Formation is an exhibition documenting the early years of the Israeli state. The show is curated by visual theorist Ariella Azoulay.

These photos, previously confined to Israeli state archives, depict four crucial years in the history of Palestine / Israel: 1947 to 1950. This is the first time that many of these images have been seen outside Israel.

Visit the show, and you’ll see more than 200 striking images, illustrating the story behind the first years of the Israeli State and its relationship with the remaining Palestinians.

The photos tell the story of how the Palestinian majority in Mandatory Palestine became a minority in Israel, while the Jewish minority established a new political entity becoming a majority ruling a minority Palestinian population.

As a leading visual theorist, Azoulay is able to provide fascinating analytical explanation of the images. Azoulay says,

“The constituent violence recorded in photos from these years should not be mistakenly and anachronistically read as signs of unavoidable national conflict. What was and still is truly unavoidable is not national conflict, but rather co-existence of Jews and Palestinians in a shared territory and the open space for a variety of forms to shape, practice, express and represent this co-existence.”

The exhibition, which runs from 4 to 25 November, will be accompanied by a series of talks on the relationship between archival photography, film and the writing (or re-writing) of history. Visit www.mosaicrooms.org/from-palestine-to-israel to find out more.

Do you know of any other examples of Israeli culture in London? Let us know in the comments below.

And here’s how it looks today, incorporating Westfield Stratford City, the Athletes’ Village and the Olympic Stadium:

With 300 shops and 50 restaurants, Westfield Stratford City will be the largest urban shopping centre in Europe. It’s due to open on 13 September.

There’ll be a John Lewis, an M&S and a Waitrose, as well as all your other favourite stores: Primark, Next, Mothercare, Swarovski, Paperchase, Uniqlo, Superdry and Reiss to name but a few!

Westfield Stratford City will have an unrivalled transport network; it’ll be one of the best connected shopping destinations in the UK. £17 billion is being invested in public transport in the lead up to the 2012 Olympics.

Read about Westfield’s sister store in Shepherd’s Bush on the Visit London website

Tate Britain’s new exhibition of 19th Century photographs by Eadweard Muybridge left me thinking not just about the power of his images (which laid the foundations for cinema) but also about Muybridge’s strange personality.

Among prints of the American wilderness, stunning panoramas of early San Francisco, and pioneering stop-frame photos of animals and people in motion, there are portraits of Muybridge staring out with a severe expression from behind his wiry facial hair, and slumped moodily against a giant redwood tree.

It must have taken an obsessive personality to venture out into the wilderness and set up darkrooms in caves and mountain tops (he had to process the photos immediately after taking them in those days). Muybridge was also a canny self-promoter, changing his name various times. The spelling “Eadweard” was inspired by a Saxon King.

But halfway through the exhibition a shocking fact about his identity comes to light: he was a murderer. In 1874, on discovering that his son was not in fact his own, he killed his wife’s lover, Harry Larkyns. The following year he was tried but acquitted on the basis that the killing was “justifiable”.

If he had been jailed for the crime, none of his most amazing, groundbreaking works would be sitting in the Tate today, but you can’t help but get a sinister feeling when you look into his eyes.

Eadweard Muybridge at Tate Britain until 16th January 2011. Entry £10, concessions £8.50

“Where are you from?” is a question Philippe Sibelly has pondered a lot. Born in Marseilles, Philippe has travelled widely, living in Sydney and Ireland before settling in London.

It’s London’s multiculturalism that inspired his World in One City challenge. In 2005, in the run-up to the announcement that London would host the 2012 Olympics, Philippe decided to capture that multiculturalism in a photography project.

A year and a half later, Philippe had a set of 202 photographs, representing each of the countries taking part in the Olympic Games at the time. (Now there are 205). The photos are all currently on display in Rich Mix in East London. In each Polaroid portrait, the subject is holding the previous photo, creating a chain, Philippe explains, like the Olympic flame. In view of our own current World in London blog project, I felt I had to go and meet him.

“At the start, it was really easy,” Philippe says. “I thought, ‘I know people from pretty much everywhere.’ I tried doing things to challenge people’s perceptions. Karim from Peru is a refugee from Palestine. So he doesn’t look like he’s from Peru. But he is. And in the next photo, he’s being held by an Israeli, Maya.”

“But it became more and more difficult. It started taking so long. I spent hours on email, organising with friends, travelling around the city to meet people from different places. To New Malden to find someone from South Korea. To Woolwich to meet someone from Africa…”

“Some days, I’d travel around and only take one or two photos. It was really, really frustrating.”

As well as meeting friends of friends and colleagues, Philippe says he also stopped people in the street to ask where they were from. “Very few people got annoyed,” he says. “Really, despite what people say, Londoners are very open. It may be because I’m a foreigner myself, but people were open to taking part.”

Looking through the chain of photos is fascinating. Philippe remembers all of them, and recounts many anecdotes that stand out for him.

About Jonas, a monk from the Solomon Islands; Fredi from Mali, a footballer who played for Tottenham and West Ham; how top London chef Giorgio Locatelli wanted to represent Italy; and about Magdalena from Serbia Montenegro.

Magdalena presents what Philippe finds is an interesting question. In his project, she represents a country that no longer exists. Where does she say she’s “from” now? The slightly artificial construct of nationality fascinates Philippe. The boys he photographed to represent Haiti (Adam) and Pakistan (Zishaan) have never actually been to those countries. “But Adam said it would make his mother, who’s from Haiti, very proud. And Zishaan, well, he thinks of himself as fully English and fully Pakistani. He said to me, ‘How can I be half and half? I’m both.’ I find that strong sense of nationalism, from people who’ve never even been to the country they say they’re from, very strange.”

It’s a testament to London’s unique diversity that of the whole list of Olympic nations (a list he chose because it’s fairly neutral), Philippe only struggled to find people from about five. “For these five nations I chose someone linked in some way to this place: someone who has lived there, has family there, or even, in the case of Nauru, I settled for someone who knew where it was.”

Philippe has mixed views on the complex issue of London’s multiculturalism. “Diversity is great, but you can’t be too romantic about it. It’s not always a positive thing for everyone. When your local shop stops selling your sausages and starts selling samosas, it can be difficult for people to get used to.

“The best people can do is live with it, and get the positives out of it. Take the good.”

You can see Philippe’s World In One City photographs at Rich Mix, or online here.

Here, thanks to intrepid camera-wielding VL staff member Madelene, are some fantastic shots of the London Marathon.

Were you there? Running or cheering? Tell us your marathon stories in the comments below. And if you have any pictures you’d like to share, just add them to our flickrpool.

The best photographs will be chosen to become part of a giant photography wall, to go on display in the Piazza later this year.

Whether it’s an image of the street performers or that snap you love of your family meal on the Piazza, all pictures are welcome.

So get your lens in gear and start snapping!

Visit www.coventgardenlondonuk.com/canvas to submit your photographs

This fantastic picture by fabienne & co reminded us how happy we are with the changing season in London.

Yes, winter is very atmospheric, but nothing compares to seeing the first trees in blossom, crocuses and daffodils blooming in London’s parks, and people shedding their coats and enjoying lunch outside.

What’s the surest sign you’ve seen around London that spring is finally here? And if you have any gorgeous spring in London photos, please add them to the flickrpool!

Congratulations to Regent Street, who topped our recent poll of London’s Christmas Lights!

As a special treat, take a look at this wonderful gallery of Regent Street lights through the ages. If you’ve got any memories of festive lights from Christmasses past, let us know!

Leicester Square welcomed some cool customers this week to celebrate Christmas in the West End: click on the thumbnails above to see more…

Artists created four 1m-tall ice penguins enjoying the various attractions of the West End: shopping, dining, culture and entertainment.

The star attraction was a penguin sculpture based on the most popular West End show – as voted by more than 2,000 people in an online comp – a penguin in a Wicked witch’s hat!

The shopping penguin held a giant ice shopping bag with Christmas gifts frozen inside (including a Paul Smith notebook and socks, a Molton Brown gift box, a Pingu and a mini wooden frog on wheels). The dining ice penguin was enjoying an ice-cold meal; while the cultural penguin got himself in the picture by holding onto an icy picture frame.

Did you get any snaps of these chilly stars? Drop them into our flickrpool…