Every face tells a story in Simon Murphy’s frontline portrait of assorted communities in Govanhill, the neighbourhood on Glasgow’s Southside that he once called home. This is the case whether it’s Paisley wearing a ‘No More War’ badge on her camouflage jacket, hands on hips as she blows bubblegum bubbles, or tattooed Jim wielding an artfully poised cigarette. Then there is Sahar, his hands in fur-lined pockets as he leans against a car with studied cool; Dylan hanging tough on roller skates; and Cassidy swathed in matinee idol paisley-patterned scarves.  

And what about Eliza, on the way to the shops with a cat wrapped round her neck; or Callum and Marek, the epitome of couldn’t-care-lessness as they loiter outside a corner shop looked down on by a sign declaiming ‘Today’. As one young lad brazenly sucks on a fag, the other fails to hide his laughter. 

Most fantastical of all is Seamus, a street entertainer who looks like he’s on his way home from some surrealists’ ball. ‘This is me,’ each seems to be saying to the camera. ‘Take it or leave it.’ Govanhill is one of those places where things like this can happen. As the crosswinds of internationalism leave their mark across generations, a diverse and disparate energy and attitude has developed organically in a way that those behind institutional attempts at social engineering will never fathom. That energy and attitude pervade throughout these pictures.

Having lived and worked in Govanhill for years, Murphy taps into them the same way he did when he held ad-hoc exhibitions on the streets where those in his photographs ran free. The end result of the mutual trust this created is a set of defining images of a population forever on the go, each subject stopping off for a moment before they get on with their day.

What you see is very much what you get, whether it is a beatific Bob, eyes closed and lost in private reverie, or Vinny with his hood up and a broken nose. Much of this area’s vibrancy stems from its constant state of flux as the neighbourhood evolves. In Govanhill, Murphy has managed to pin down some of that vigour before things change. What is left is a vital collective portrait of a world in motion in all its messy glory.

Simon Murphy: Govanhill, Street Level Photoworks, Glasgow, until Saturday 27 January.