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A recent brief visit to London found me taking more photographs of contemporary architecture: in fact my images included quite a few more of More London! Regular readers of this blog, and people who are familiar with that city, or who photograph it, will know that this is a large, new, speculative development by the Thames, just upstream from Tower Bridge. As far as the buildings go it is, to my mind, a mixture of the ordinary and the very interesting. Probably its best feature is the narrow, canyon-like, "desire route" that has been created through the tall offices, linking the City Hall area with London Bridge Station.
What I find interesting about this architecture - the first buildings were called "bland and undistinguished glass boxes" by the architectural writer, Ken Allinson - is that even the most unprepossessing structures often feature semi-abstract details incorporating lines, textures, patterns, reflections etc. that are fascinating in themselves and offer an intriguing subject to the passing photographerI found details of this sort when passing 6 More London Place and instead of continuing on towards London Bridge Station as I have usually done when walking this way, I stepped over towards the main entrance of the building and looked up. Such was the interplay of elements and reflections that met my eye I found it difficult to work out what was real and what was mirrored, a phenomenon that has always had appeal for me. I took a few photographs of the compexity including these two. Looking at them again I'm reminded of the the paintings and constructions of Jesus-Rafael Soto, or the spare linear, Constructivist works of Lissitsky, and I wondered where the architect had found his inspiration.
photograph and text (c) T. Boughen
Camera: Canon
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 24mm
F No: f8
Shutter Speed: 1/200
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.67 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
