James first lived in London for a brief period in the early 1990's, but it wasn't until returning to the city in 2007 that James was looking to photograph London. The focus at that time was the city itself and it's street art. Unfortunately all but a very few of the photographs taken at the time have survived (most have been lost). So the majority of the photographs in this book are now from a handful of later revisits since 2011. The main focus of the photographs from this period was now the city's public figurative sculpture.
On Assessment of the city it is amazing to see just how much history, culture, architecture and public art exists in a city that essentially sells itself as one of the world's financial capitals. The other interesting aspect of London is that it's not really a city at all, in the sense of a metropolis, but is instead a large collection of interconnected villages that have, over time, become known as London.
Even though most of these photographs were not taken in 2007 this book does represent that year that James spent living there.