Tag: London buses

New London and Paris projects

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New London and Paris projects posted

Over the last 12 months I have slowly started to add some new London projects to the site. The latest, Action or Extinction is my second London bus project. It takes a different approach to the first, An Elevated View. I first started photographing from the bus during my commutes from my home in North London to work in West London, but I abandoned this approach, and An Elevated View evolved to become a focus on the London streetscape from the vantage point of the top deck of the bus, created from journeys on multiple routes across London at different times of the day.

Tufnell Park

I decided to return to documenting my commutes on the bus in 2018 and 2019 and Action or Extinction is the result. Unlike An Elevated View, most of Action or Extinction is from just one route, so a more uniform perspective and with the constraint that the work had to be made while commuting.

Marylebone

A Journey Along the Lea is my third approach to my walks along London’s second river and it’s a wide-ranging exploration from Hertford East in the home counties to where the river joins the Thames near the East India Docks in London. It is a journey that includes market towns, industrial estates and post-industrial landscapes. The chance discovery of an extract from a poem by William Vallens from the 16th Century determined the opening image for the series.

Hertford East

I have also just added another project from Paris to the site. The Not so Silent Line is a journey along a circular railway in Paris that follows the lines of the city’s former fortifications. Despite appearing to be abandoned, it remains part of the French National Railway Network.

Gare Avenue De St Ouen - Paris 18ème

Gare Avenue De St Ouen – Paris 18ème

Over the past decade more Parisians (and visitors) have become aware of this secret, or not so secret, green corridor in the city and many explore and treat it as just another park in the city. This has led the Paris City Mayor to make more of this vital green space in the city and to promote its benefits. While you can no longer walk the whole line you can trace its route around the city and explore its viaducts, trenches and tunnels, descending into a landscape where nature has reclaimed the city. I recommend that you listen to this BBC documentary from 2013 to find out more about La Petite Ceinture.

The threat that connects all of these projects is undertaking a journey. Whether on a London bus, walking along the Lea, or La Petite Ceinture, it is the act of following the path and seeing where it takes you.

I am hoping to add some more projects to the site shortly.

An Elevated View

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This is a commuter’s perspective of London – a passing view of the city defined by the top deck of a London bus.

How we negotiate and observe the urban space from the bus is constrained by the prescribed routes that define our commutes, the random flow of traffic and most simply by where we end up sitting. The familiar streetscape is caught in a series of momentary glances as the bus lurches and sways toward its destination.

The shifting seasons and the distinct districts of the city flicker across the screen of the bus windows — the leafy north, the cool grunge of Stroud Green Road and Hackney and the steel and glass of the City of London. This elevated view of the street is disconnected yet strangely intimate as we watch the city and its people unfold beneath us.

Created from multiple journeys, this series of photographs is a composite portrait of some of the fixed pathways through the city.

What I see from the London bus

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I’ve been continuing to explore London streets from the viewpoint of the bus – what started as a bit of a distraction from my commutes to west London has evolved. I’ve been taking other routes and watching the London landscape pass by.

Some of the more recent images are along Holloway Road..

Holloway

Holloway

On the way back from Broadway market I travelled through Shoredtich and Hoxton..

The Eagle

The Eagle

Islington

Islington

And onwards via the Angel

Angel

Angel

You can take a look at the most recent updates at London from the bus or follow my tumblr blog to keep up to date with new image updates as I add them.