Comments on: Edge Of The City

By: Jill

Jill — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 21:43:22 +0000

Beauty in austerity. Timeless images. As usual with a unique atmosphere. Thank you.

By: Phil Maxwell

Phil Maxwell — Fri, 20 May 2016 16:56:22 +0000

Lovely work.

By: pauline taylor

pauline taylor — Thu, 19 May 2016 17:59:38 +0000

Personally I like these images although, unlike others, I am not familiar with the scenes depicted. However I was trained to use a plate camera, and I am really pleased to see that the skill has not been lost. As always black and white does inevitably create more atmosphere than any colour photograph, and reflections from a wet pavement are a gift to the photographer. More like these please GA.

Perhaps one day someone will take portraits of people with a plate camera again, that I really would like to see, how about it Robert and Peter?

By: Valerie-Jael

Valerie-Jael — Thu, 19 May 2016 15:33:52 +0000

The photos are good, but it’s a shame that so many of these old streets are already overshadowed by those huge and ugly towers. Valerie

By: Edward Rekkers

Edward Rekkers — Thu, 19 May 2016 10:52:53 +0000

Beautiful images, although I’m not surprised the GA didn’t recognise some of them as they are literally from a time gone by. Edmund Martin’s shop is now a gaping hole where the ticket hall for Farringdon Crossrail station is being built. I wonder how many of the other locations have changed.

By: Malcolm

Malcolm — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:43:07 +0000

These are impressive images. Empty, eerie streets probably taken early in the morning. Reminiscent of Eugene Atget’s photographs of Paris, they depict the familiar in an unfamiliar way. Being an inveterate rambler of London’s myriad lanes, alleys and hidden places I know most of these streets but the angle of view taken by the photographers reveals some interesting details, such as the façade hanging from the building in Artillery Lane. When you view it from this angle it looks ridiculous. The fact that they are black and white means that we view them almost like abstract paintings, indeed the picture of Golden Lane Estate could almost be a Ben Nicholson or a Mondrian. The light is also important in these pictures. The wet, glistening surfaces of Artillery Lane reflecting the light back onto the buildings in the narrow street, the flat, even light in others serve to flatten perspective of the clustered buildings so they become a collection of lines, planes and shades of grey. And yet there is still that unmistakeable look of London that no other City in the world has.

By: Tanya reynolds

Tanya reynolds — Thu, 19 May 2016 06:18:03 +0000

Beatiful and serene.
I agree that although most are likely known to the viewer they do appear alien at first.
I think what renders these pictures as so fascinating is the lack of people, cars, movement etc.
Like a shot from the 1950s, we rarely see the city in this state is stillness.