25
Jul
When I travel, I try to push myself to look at things from a unique perspective. My friend, James was over visiting from Paris. Lately, he had been experimenting with photographing Paris in black and white and urged me to try it. I set my viewfinder to show me black-and-white rendered versions of my images so I could begin to get a feel for what I was looking at and before long, there was no stopping me. I was hooked.
Southbank
Firstly, I tried some street photography. Just capturing London life as it happened in real time. I was anxious at first but soon relaxed into it and started to get more creative, looking for shapes and shards of light then waiting until something happened at the right time.
The Southbank was a wonderful place to begin. It is so vibrant and colourful. I could have photographed there all day but there was so much more to see. So we moved on.
TATE Modern
Well, this was fun! An opportunity to be artistic, make statements and push boundaries as artists do in the name of their craft. Some may beg to differ. Make of it what you will.
Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel
Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel is a black and white photographers dream. You can view more black and white photos of Leake Street at this page on my Blog. Here is one image that a Rasta man picked out for me. The portrait of the woman was on the ceiling, reflected in the puddle.
Spitalfields
Spitalfields is an another intriguing part of London, deemed so for its rich history and very much intact structures like Simon Schwartz’s in Fournier Street, previously a dairy complete with a cow in the yard.. You can read more on Andrew Whitethead’s Blog.
I found the doorknockers interesting, if not a teeny bit creepy.
Spitalfields Markets
By now, it was definitely time for a bathroom break and a coffee so what better place to stop than Spitalfields Markets? Refreshed, it was time to move on again.
On our way out, we tried to capture a bit of the market vibe but people were a little stroppy so we moved on.
John Soane Museum
I have spent hours here. What an incredible gift to the community this museum is. There is no end to the number of beguiling treasures to behold. From the lines and arches of the architecture down to the myriad of Roman artefacts housed here.
Leadenhall Market
It is late in the afternoon now and what better place to stop for a pint than Leadenhall Market. It is nice and warm inside too so we can defrost our freezing fingers.
Photographer Rights
I had always been afraid of street photography, frightened someone would yell at me. That is until I studied privacy, copyright and consumer law and understood that I have every right to photograph in public places and that people who put themselves in public places have to expect that they could be photographed.
I study and teach this law in regards to photography in Australia so I thought I’d check and see if the laws applied here and they do. The Met Police website states that the public has every right to photograph in public and the police have no right to stop them. In this case, the images are not available for sale, there is no risk of breaking consumer or privacy laws either.
The only time laws do not apply is when photographing commissioned artwork and graffiti, in which case, I try to contact the artist where possible.
Thanks, James...
I seriously had so much fun roaming the streets of London shooting black and white that I could just do it for the rest of my life.
Alas, I am a working professional photographer so I need to switch focus to corporate headshots for now but do stay tuned because I’m certain to pick this up again at some point. Who knows where? Paris, Sydney?
I want to thank my friend James for his encouragement and inspiration. If you are interested in seeing his work, you can find him on socials as cartepostaledeparis and Perfect Paris Photos.
Meanwhile, happy travelling.
N x
