Charing Cross escalators

click photo to enlarge
If anyone were to look for favourite formal characteristics in my photographs - compositional themes rather than subjects - I think (hope) they would notice, strong shapes, shadows, reflections and both simple compositions and complex, even confusing, compositions.

Five years ago I came upon a location in London that indulges all those predilections. Charing Cross railway station has escalators that take pedestrian down from the bridge level or up to it from the station below. They are the work of a notable firm of British architects who re-developed the whole station - Terry Farrell and Partners. The big circles, mirror walls reflecting the passing travellers, and the diagonals of the ever-running escalators drew my camera recently for the second time. A late afternoon on a dull day gave more shadow and artificial light to the scene than did the better light of my earlier shot.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Photo Title: Charing Cross Station Escalators, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 16mm (32mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.1
Shutter Speed: 1/80 sec
ISO:1600
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Carbuncles and silly names

click photo to enlarge
The right-most of the two new buildings in today's photograph was a 2015 nominee for the Carbuncle Cup,an architectural prize awarded by the UK's "Building Design" magazine to "the ugliest building in the United Kingdom completed in the last 12 months." It didn't win, and wasn't even short-listed, because last year it faced severe competition. The winner was, in my opinion, the ugliest building erected in the UK so far this century, and probably in the past fifty years - Rafael Vinoly's 20 Fenchurch Street, also known as "The Walkie Talkie".

If there was a prize for the silliest name for a building then the angular monstrosity shown in today's post would surely have won. It is a hotel in the Shoreditch/Hoxton area of London, near "silicon roundabout" and is called, M by Montcalm Hotel. Why do I dislike this building? Well, it defaces the area in which it stands by acknowledging nothing around it, not even the banal new block next door, an essay in what looks like 1930s Moderne-cum-very stripped classical, that matches it for height. The hotel's sharp points, sloping windows and decorative cladding all seem designed to grab the eye, provoke reaction, say "look at me", and nothing else. The absence of right angles in the elevations seems to be worn like a badge of pride, a feature designed to make passers-by feel that either they or the building is falling over. It's a cheap trick that lacks reason, one that quickly becomes tiresome and provokes a "so what" response.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: M by Montcalm Hotel, Shoreditch, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 22mm (44mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/640 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Lighting the diagrid roof

click photo to enlarge
One the many areas in which architecture progressed in the twentieth century, and continues to do so in the twenty-first, is lighting. Architects have always built with an eye to light - either the sun to model the building and its details, or artificial light from flame or electricity to illuminate and give atmosphere in the darkness. New technology such as neon, fluorescent tubes, lasers, LEDs etc have widened the role of lighting and today it fulfils all its original roles and some newer ones too. Here are two examples of cinemas using lighting, one in a  traditional way, the other in a much more modern manner.

Today's photograph of the evening lighting of the interior of King's Cross railway station's diagrid roof (see the previous post) is nothing too innovative, but is very effective.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Lighting of Diagrid Roof, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 42mm (84mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.4
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:640
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Diagrid roof, King's Cross, London

click photo to enlarge
The new Western Concourse at King's Cross railway station in London has a striking diagrid roof.It was designed by the architects, John McAsland and Partners in association with the engineers, Arup. The word diagrid comes from "diagonal grid" and describes a construction method that uses diagonal components very efficiently and economically - steel wall supports and roofs can be constructed that use twenty per cent less materials than would a more conventional steel frame.

The Russian engineer/designer/architect, Vladimir Shukhov (1853-1939, who built in the Constructivist style, is credited with the invention of this method of building. Examples can be seen in most major cities today. In London the "Gherkin" (30 St Mary Axe) and the Queen Elizabeth II Great Court at the British Museum feature the system.

Today's photograph was taken in an attempt to improve on an earlier photograph that I took of the King's Cross roof. On this occasion I used a wide angle lens rather than a fish-eye, but stayed with black and white rather than colour.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Diagrid Roof, King's Cross, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 12mm (24mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f2.8
Shutter Speed: 1/160 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Reflecting on stainless steel

click photo to enlarge
No buildings last forever, though some such as Stonehenge, the Sumerian ziggurats, the Pyramids, and the temples of ancient Greece are probably enduring for longer than their builders imagined. There are a number of features that help to make a building last a long time including peace, reverence for the past, and the materials of which it is constructed. War destroys buildings more effectively than anything else, though in Britain the cultural vandalism of national and local politicians in the name of "improvement" runs it a close second. Understanding the importance of the past results in selected old buildings having a long life, though which are chosen for life-support is somewhat arbitrary, and varies with the period in time.

Building materials used to be more important than they are today when buildings are often expected to stand for less than a century, and sometimes only a few decades. Consequently the materials chosen are frequently transient, and where they have the capacity to be long-lived they frequently don't fulfil their potential. In recent years I have despaired of the fashion in Britain for hardwood cladding, a finish that stains badly and warps in our damp climate, that will rot and rarely looks well on a city building. Stainless steel, a material that should last a long time, is one that I have increasing doubts about. It initially looks sleek but requires cleaning because, despite its name it does mark and stain, and isn't always cleaned as often as is required. The Lloyds building in the City of London was completed thirty years ago and still looks fine due to regular maintenance, but it gets much of its force from its complex shape. Will 5 Broadgate (above), a new London building that gets a lot of its power from its contrast of flawless surface with sharply drawn lines, as well as its silky sheen, disappoint in thirty, forty or fifty years when it is dull and stained?

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: 5 Broadgate, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

A Ledbury view

click photo to enlarge
The market town of Ledbury in Herefordshire is a place I visit fairly frequently, and over the past few years I've collected quite a few photographs of the place, only a few of which please me. This one was taken in early March on a cold, cloudy day. It attempts to encapsulate the town in a single photograph. That's isn't something that is easy to do, and my image doesn't do it to my satisfaction. However, as a streetscape it isn't a complete failure, with visual interest across the frame.

The photograph shows the main street where it widens to accommodate the weekly market. It shows the unwelcome intrusion of cars and the shoppers and tourists attracted to the visually appealing independent shops that flank the route. The black and white, timber-framed structure is the Market House, the town's most prominent building. It was begun after 1617 and completed after 1655. Herefordshire is an area where timber-framed buildings dating from the 1400s through to the 1700s are relatively common, and Ledbury has several such of which this is the most prominent. The first storey rooms are raised on posts of local Spanish chestnut and the space below was designed to give market traders some shelter. It is still used for its original purpose today.

The other prominent building on the left of the photograph is the Barrett Browning Memorial Institute and Clock Tower. It dates from 1892-6 and is the work of the Brightwen Binyon. Pevsner doesn't pull his punches, describing it as "really terrible", observing that though it acknowledges the local timber-framing it does not harmonise with it. He's right that it isn't a great building but it is a tall, visual punctuation at this part of the town.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Market House, Ledbury, Herefordshire
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 18mm (36mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f4.2
Shutter Speed: 1/1000 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Tall things and The Shard

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It was wind turbines that first prompted the realisation that tall things - I mean very tall things - look tallest when seen from afar. There's a wind farm not too far from where I live, and, though I know that the ground to blade tip height is 100m regardless of where I'm standing, they still appear to be bigger when I'm two miles distant, and bigger still when I'm 5 or more miles away. It must be something to do with the fact that at those sorts of distances the real difference between a house or a tree and the turbine is always clear. However, when I'm closer a nearby tree looks relatively tall when viewed with a distant turbine.

The same is true of the the Shard, currently the tallest building in London. When seen from my car on the M11 where it passes over the hills north of London the Shard appears to tower over most of the tall buildings of the city, its distinctive, pointed shape catching the eye. However, from within the city its relative height seems less - at least to my eye. With the Shard I think there is another factor at work: the tapering shape makes it less massive in fact and in appearance when you are nearby. I photographed this building at reasonably regular intervals as it was being built, and took a few shots from the location of today's image (the ludicrously named More London). This recent shot was prompted by the silhouettes of people in the canyon-like cleft that frames the Shard, and also the bright red crane stretched across it. Building in London never stops and a recent news article pointed out that there are currently 436 tall buildings (over 20 storeys) in the pipeline for the capital of which 233 have planning approval.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title:  The Shard Seen From More London, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/250 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Vespa GTS 300

click photo to enlarge
My interest in scooters began and ended with one that I used to push along with my foot, up and down the hills of my home-town as an eight year old. Even today, if someone says "scooter" I think of the child's plaything rather than the chrome, curves and pop-pop-pop of the sub-motorcycle (or is the step above the bicycle?)

Scooters of the lightweight, folding variety, with skateboard-size wheels, have enjoyed a popularity with children and youths for a number of years. These modern incarnations of the type I knew (in those days by manufacturers such as Triang - today by myriad companies) look like fun. Which is more than I can say about the motorised scooter of today's photograph. I'm sure many would disagree with me on this point, seeing style, convenience and relatively inexpensive transport that can be used wearing work clothes rather than leathers.

So why, you may be wondering, am I photographing something in which I have little interest. The answer lies in the colours, the tactile qualities of the shiny metal, and the way its curves are framed by the yellow, angular lines of the car park. Without its surroundings I wouldn't have photographed this scooter, nor would I have given it a slight vignette to emphasise it in its setting.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Vespa GTS 300
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 45mm (90mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Photographing staircases

click photo to enlarge
Photographers seem drawn to photographing staircases in the way that painters paint bowls of fruit, and perhaps for similar reasons - it is a very three-dimensional subject depicted in two dimensions. Architects put a lot of work into staircases and over the centuries have come up with many variations, some ornate, others utilitarian. The wrongly named spiral staircase (they are almost always helicoidal) must take the prize for the most photographed design, and I've taken my share of examples of both elaborate and simple construction.

Any staircase that involves a change of direction (called in this instance a "return") gives a photographer a strong set of lines and a visual route through an image, and this must lie at the centre of its attraction as a subject. Handrails, balusters, newel posts, wall stringers, lighting etc add further elements though the most important is often people using the staircase. Today's example was taken in a relatively dark staircase at Tate Modern in London. Here I liked the contrast of the flat dark areas and the subtly shaded lighter areas as well as the line created by the lighting under the handrail and the fact that the colour palette is nearly all in the area of browns and beiges.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Staircase, Tate Modern, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/30 sec
ISO:6400
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Chromorama, 5 Broadgate, London

click photo to enlarge
In a recent post I remarked how architects who build sharp, angular buildings frequently seek the soft, wayward, natural counterpoint of trees and shrubs. The architectural firm of MAKE and its leader Ken Shuttleworth seem of that persuasion. Today's photograph shows the building at 5 Broadgate, London, with its rigidly etched verticals and horizontals broken by the scribble of the branches of a nearby tree.

But this photograph also shows the other accompaniment that is today the de rigeur addition to expensive offices - sculpture. The Broadgate website describes this piece, "Chromorama" by the London-based artist, David Batchelor, as "totemic" - which it isn't. That word means the mark, badge or totem of a tribe, and by extension a group. Unless the brightly coloured matchbox-like shapes (that illuminate at night) represent bundles of money, then I don't see it being totemic. I think they mean "like a totem pole", and certainly that image came to my mind the instant I saw it. As a piece of sculpture I don't care greatly for Chromorama. But, as a loud burst of colour in a space overwhelmingly steel grey with blue glass highlights, it is a welcome presence.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Chromorama, 5 Broadgate, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 20mm (40mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/320 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Number 5

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About seven years ago I took a photograph in which the most important element was a small number 9, and so that became the title of the accompanying written "reflection" which was about the track of that title on the "White Album" by the Beatles.

No such strong association leaps to mind when I consider the number 5, though I am reminded of reading that the Roman "V" (five) comes from the shape made by the hand with four fingers together and the thumb separate. In fact what is prompted by this massive number 5 on the wall of 5 Broadgate, a massive new tower that will hold six UBS trading floors in London, is the thought of how dystopian it looks. It dwarfs people, appears to be the product of a machine rather than humans, and imposes itself on passers-by in a way that few such numbers do. The whole building is clad in the same stainless steel panels, sharp angular shapes and windows breaking the perfection of the surface. It will be interesting to see how perfect it looks after several years of English weather.The building is an enormous "lump" that overall is a poor contribution to the locality but which has some interesting details that drew my camera.

I took a quick shot of a passer-by to give scale to the enormous number. Unfortunately I framed it badly and the feet of the person got chopped off. We waited for someone else to come along but, after a few minutes no one had come along and so I asked my wife to walk by.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: 5 Broadgate, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 29mm (58mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Chairs, posteriors and primary colours

click photo to enlarge
What are the chances that anyone who buys and sets up cafe chairs that are red, blue and yellow will choose a centre-piece for each table that isn't green? Very slim I'd say because those four colours (sometimes its three of them) are presented to us as a group so often they seem to be a natural combination. I've done no research on this matter, but it seems to me that this wasn't the case until the revolution in art, printing and design of the early twentieth century. Before that time colours were often more subdued, or where bright were used sparingly as highlights, or were more subtle. Today the colours are almost mandatory in children's toys and are frequently seen in graphic design, architecture, packaging, even beach huts - and much else.

Consequently it came as no surprise to find a cafe in Old Spitalfields Market in London where the owner had chosen red, blue and yellow chairs, or that the table decoration was a pot of green leaves. Nor was it surprising that the designer of the chairs had taken little account of the human form in his choice of shape and materials. However, none of that dissuaded me from thinking that the scene might produce an interesting photograph.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Photo Title: Market Cafe Chairs, London
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 47mm (94mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/100 sec
ISO:1250
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On