Reflecting on
by Graham Long
My normal style of street photography is very much character based, walking around the streets and markets of the east end of London looking out for faces, colours, characters and clowns but sometimes you lose the vibe or it just doesn’t work out the people just aren’t there – a great quote from photographer Neil Hall sums up bad days in street photography “It’s like trying to capture a rare butterfly while you’ve got a large bell around your neck” as happened to me just two weeks ago on a Saturday in London, I just wasn’t successful in my usual areas, something didn’t feel right so I moved on and ventured into the city where they have recently completed 22 Bishopsgate a new skyscraper in the heart of London.
It occupies a prominent site, in the City of London financial district, and stands at 278 m (912 ft) tall with 62 storeys. Now London’s second highest building after The Shard.
It has also created some new ‘public realm’ courtyards and walkways between the buildings in the area, from where I noticed the foyer area and its huge panes of glass, which with the afternoon sunlight and changing skies, acted like mirrors as I ventured along the new walkway and I was immediately drawn to the symmetry it offered from passers-by and people waiting at a nearby bus stop and traffic junction
With my trusty little Ricoh GR3 to hand, I took up position placing it against the glass of the foyer panes – set to autofocus on Programme setting, I stood there, much to the bemusement of the weekend security guard in the foyer, who ventured over to see what I was up to as I placed the flat side of the camera against the window and waited, watched and snapped away . . . capturing various scenes of life in about 20 minutes and producing a new mini series of images I am actually very proud of
I think I will definitely look for these areas in the future.
