Southbank in London is always worth a visit – there’s always something new to see. Last week I spent an afternoon walking around parts of central London (taking 180 images in the process) and part of that walk involved me crossing over the Thames to Southbank to see a superb photographic exhibition by Charlie Waite, one of the UK’s best known and highly respected landscape photographers. His exhibition is on display at the National Theatre until 16 August. Click here for details. If you are anywhere near London in the next six weeks, make sure you go and see this – you will be inspired.
I crossed over to Southbank from Charing Cross via the Hungerford Bridge. It’s a walk I frequently make and I am always on the lookout for images. The start of the direct route from the station concourse is tucked away in the left corner as you view the departures board. It’s easy to miss it. You enter a narrow passage and then thread your way past a clutch of market traders, and then past escalators. At this point, look right and stare at the reflections in the mirrored paneling across the space and watch the world go by.
I always stop at this point. Every time I am there, the light seems to be different and I see it anew.
I looked back through my archive and counted four occasions when I have paused here to shoot images. All previous visits have been with the Canon G10. The most recent visit was the only time I was armed with a dSLR. I thought you might like to see these previous images chronologically.
Click on the first image in the gallery below and navigate through to see how my approach has varied over the years.
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- Jan 2011
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- Jan 2011
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- May 2013
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- Jan 2014
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- June 2014
LensScaper 
It’s easy to see why you bring a camera. Photo ops are to be had everywhere. Very nice selection, Andy.
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Excellent set. I really like the first and last variants.
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My fav is Jan 2011. I think we all have our favorite little haunts !
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Thanks Kathryn. That was the first time I really saw the potential of this spot, so that will always be a special shoot.
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Very nice collection of images from this spot Andy. Some wonder why we go back to the same places all of the time and as you know, it is ALL about the light
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Looking back at that series I also realize that the first time I went there I rested the G10 on a rail and shot from there and that created a completely different angle of view. But as you rightly observe the light has also been different. The light levels tend to be low because it is under cover, and in January too the ambient life is offset by interior lighting. I tall goes into the mix. Thanks for your comment, Len, as always.
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Nice images Andy, and thanks for the tip about the Charlie Waite exhibition; I’ll certainly be paying a visit or two. They have some great free exhibitions there most of the time – in fact the first time I visited the NT (around 28 years ago!) was for a Gerald Scarfe show.
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Many thanks for your comment, Rob. You’ll love Charlie’s exhibition. The other one I make sure I never miss is the Landscape Photographer of the Year exhibition.
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Heraclitus got it right: we never do step into the same river twice, even if it’s a river of light.
A friend once disciplined herself to take a photo from her kitchen door into her back yard for a full year, as close to the same time every day as she could manage. It really was a remarkable thing to witness, and she said it did as much as anything she’d ever tried to sharpen her eye.
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Heraclitus was so right, Linda. Exercises like the one you mention can have a remarkable affect on our ability to see
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A photographer’s eye Andy 😉 … just off the train most people are in such a hurry to get somewhere else and hardly register their immediate surroundings !
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And if they are hurrying to catch a train, they are moving even faster. Makes a photographer’s job marginally easier. Thanks Poppy.
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I love all these images Andy. I do like the last though where you have exposed for the window and put everything else into shadow. The character standing and the other two walking is the icing on the cake. As Poppy says, a photographer’s eye! 🙂
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I was attracted by the elderly man hunched over the railing and immobile – I think he was listening to a busker in the street below. I waited a counter-balancing person(s). Many thanks for your comment, Adrian.
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