Spy vs. Spy on the dark side

 

 

So we've gone all stealthy today. This is my 50th London Street Photography Meetup and a welcome revisit to the imposing, brutalist architecture of the Barbican Estate. This time we were playing spy games. We are all disguised in black like sneaky photography ninjas, wearing hats and dark glasses, though a distinct lack of false beards, sadly.

 

 

 

 

We were set a series of challenges in various classified zones. Lots of classic looking up from below, looking down to those below, but coupled with surveillance, espionage, lurking, stalking and shooting from the shadows. Our themes today included looking for those leading lines framing little silhouetted people, negative space, and a Polly favourite - the odd random limb.

 

 

 

 

One of the joys of the Barbican is the multitude of textures. Around each corner there's rough and smooth concrete, long lines of bricks, tiles and the lighting can really emphasise those details. I'm particularly drawn to reflections off the shiny floor tiles, and the art deco style ceiling lights throwing intriguing pale pools to the lower levels.

The illumination beneath the handrails flanking the ramp leading up from the Barbican Centre makes me think of a runway or spaceship gantry, and I have to linger there for a whole hoping someone would walk up. Typically, there's no one for ages and then a little huddle of people make their way up the slope, and you sigh hopefully one would linger behind and make your image. I was fortunate that after being thwarted for ages, a passersby was happy to saunter down and up the slope. It transpired that he's an accomplished photographer as he showed me a couple of wonderful lit leading lines images taken at an airport. Obviously this wasn't very covert of me but I guess I'd been made by then!

For the second week in a row I grabbed a selfie. Good grief, what is happening to me? As I arrived at Barbican tube station I noticed the 'kids' were posing in front of the shiny panels alongside the platform with their smartphones. So figuring I was pretty anonymous in my ninja photography garb I thrust my Leica in the general direction of the big X and clicked!

 

 

We were seeking a film noir look for all our photographs today. So in post, I've emphasised the low key murky blackness especially for those shots inside the complex, where you're engulfed in all that towering concrete. I was hoping to evoke a spooky, mysterious feel, upping up the vignette and letting the inkiness creep into all the corners. Welcome to the dark side!

 

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Humans, Art and Humans as Art

 

 

After loitering outside a gallery in the rain last week, today on a sunny but freezing Saturday the London Street Photography Meetup photogs headed for the Tate Modern with the theme Humans as Art. Our much loved "lights of stripe" (sic) were not present today due to the sun being in the wrong direction and them having bizarrely carpeted the Turbine Hall. The latter encouraging our potential art exhibits to do a lot of sitting about, lying about and rolling down the slope.

 

 

Our first challenge was to look for moments of stillness, possibly in monochrome, maybe a shadow or silhouette. I eagerly pounced on one light of stripe I had found, and was determined to extract every possible potential from it.

 

Our second challenge was to capture moments of interaction between the visitors and the artwork, hopefully capturing a moment of synergy. I spent so long staring at a yellow disc slowly revolving whilst hoping that somebody would walk in front of it at the precise moment, that I'm still seeing yellow circles a day later. Lurking in the shadows whispering "walk into the light" is perhaps a tad creepy and when a little boy appeared in the doorway clad in the perfect yellow jacket, I tried much too hard to convince him with my mind to stand in front of the reflected circle. His parents "kindly" restrained him from running in front of our waiting lenses, curses!

I had slightly more luck stalking a lady in a striped bobble hat, however, hoping to corral her in front of the Bridget Riley stripy painting. I also trailed a woman sporting vibrant dreadlocks. And being a fan of Antony Gormley's work, I was pleased when a girl stood in my line of sight. It would have been too much to ask to have her arms outstretched and probably would've looked too contrived anyway.

Whilst searching for shadowy subjects in the welcome sunshine, I captured a rare selfie, sliced by beams of sunlight bouncing off the doors.

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Not so secret sky garden

 

 

Today's London Street Photography Meetup, and the last of 2016 was back to one of my favourite themes, Man vs Architecture. And I was finally going to visit the Sky Garden in the Walkie-Talkie building. That isn't really its name, I think it's just called 20 Fenchurch Street (I know, catchy!) I visited it frequently in its previous incarnation, when it was much less shiny. But that was work (even though lovely people worked there) and this is pure photographic pleasure.

 

 

 

 

Whilst we were up there, we were tasked to work with glass, which, luckily, there was plenty of. Sadly the view was a tad obscured by mist and framed by such a bland sky by it was fun trying to capture some interesting silhouettes.

 

 

 

 

When we were down on terra firma again, our challenge was to illustrate scale, little people, tall buildings, obviously that gave us plenty of opportunity to comment on the vertically challenged amongst us! I added a ginormous Gherkin, a giant head and a towering walkie-talkie into the mix.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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