February 2022 - The Underground

A year ago, a friend and I decided to photograph the London Underground. Clearly this was not going to be a small project, but in the end, we only had two days photographing before we were locked down. But it was really interesting to see what we could make of – what I usually think of the tube – a noisy, full, rather uninteresting place. In fact, all those assumptions proved wrong (the first two helped by the fact that we were photographing between about 1 a.m. and 2 p.m. – well out of rush hour – and in February and March – no tourists around).

And the lockdowns meant that we didn’t actually go to that many stations. On this first trip, we stuck to a loop from Waterloo to London Bridge, to Westminster and back to Waterloo. We got out at most of the stations and wandered around looking to see what we could photograph: we had our tripods with us, but no flash guns. So, in fact we were pretty visible to all those who passed in front of us. 

The rules of privacy and, specifically, the rules of photography in the underground network allow you to take pictures anywhere unless there is a very good reason not to. Embarrassment is not a good reason! And, in the reality of it, we were only stopped twice – each time by a TFL staff member. At one station we were allowed to carry on (“But be sensitive”) and at Westminster we were asked to be very cautious as it is supposed to be a secure place. Oh, and one guy walked very quickly in front of my camera, hiding his face. As a result, we were able to do pretty much what we pleased with the only constraint being our own embarrassment which we both kept carefully locked up.

There were two themes we noticed this first time – symmetry and machinery. This first set of photos focuses on the symmetry of the underground – the tunnels, the escalators, even the trains themselves. I should have expected it – but I didn’t, and really enjoyed trying to take photographs that illustrated this symmetry. And the people in each photo were important: I don’t think there would have been as much impact if I had waited until there was nobody there. 

Also, I have converted them all to monochrome, to black and white. It seemed to me that including the true colours of the scenes would distract from making something that captured the essence of ‘place’, that sense that you can feel the place on view, that you can feel that you’ve been there, done that. And I like monochrome as well!

What I had also not realised was that there is some stunning architecture in the stations and walkways. That first photo gives a small idea of the effort that was made, and is still being made, into creating a place that is more enjoyable to be in. The second picture shows something of the modern environment (modern in this case means something that has been built in the last 40 or so years!). Beautiful and efficient. There’s a distinct design aim of making something functional and yet still looking nice.

The third picture doesn’t seem that attractive; indeed, it has a similar feel to travelling on the underground years ago (who remembers those wooden trains on the Waterloo & City Line in the 1980’s and before?). And this photo is not about looking pretty. It’s more about capturing a scene and displaying it – showing how many people spend a lot of time just existing.