I have lived in London all of my life, and during this time I cannot grasp the change, more so than since the great credit crunch of 2007/08. London is a fantastic city, but I wish the progress would slow down slightly.

Most of my London photographs are in black & white – this is how I like to see the city.

Walking around at Christmas time on the Strand, in Theatre-land and by the Waldorf Hotel on a still, drizzly, misty evening – watching/waiting and capturing people enjoying the festive season. The waiting paid off when the doorman from the Waldorf Hotel walked right across my path with his umbrella held open for an old couple who were residing at the hotel, then a London bus turned up at just the right time to complete the backdrop with slight movement.

Battersea Power Station has been sitting derelict since the mid 1980s. I have been taking and recording images of this since 1990. In June 1997 I happened to turn up randomly to take some more photographs, when there appeared to be a lot of activity and a light show. Straight away I set up my Hasselblad and began to capture what I saw. On the front right hand side of the image – Battersea Power Station 1997 – you can see a white light trail. This was actually the picture of a bat illuminated moving up and around the Power Station, then bright red lights illuminated the front of the building and chimneys. Catching this shot at sunset meant the exposure was 8 minutes long. Funny thing was, this was on the London Heathrow flight path, so instead of getting white dots from the plane lights captured on the negative, I had to put my hand over the camera lens every time I saw an airplane within that 8 minute period.

The fog is my backdrop – for example, the gates in Greenwich Park are really not visible most days, but one early foggy morning I was out – it was like someone had made a stage set for them. If you see the image ’The Gates Greenwich London 1993’, the mist has completely blotted out the background making the gates stand out.  

From Red Phone-Boxes, London Buses, Black Cabs, Piccadilly Circus, The London Tube, Harrods, Selfridges, Smithfield’s Market, Tower Bridge to Battersea Power Station – London is unique.

LONDON 1987 TO THE PRESENT DAY

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