Southbank forms

Brutalist monstrosity or cultural playground? Everyone has a different view of the Southbank and it’s nothing if not controversial. I love it — just as the skateboarders and street artists find pleasure in its forms and textures, I too can’t help but be drawn to its infinite variety of possibilities. I’m always finding something new each time I visit and it’s become a regular haunt for me on weekends. I take my camera along as well, and last weekend I rattled off a number of shots as the sun went down on a lovely crisp and bright London afternoon.

My new camera has given me an entirely new and energetic attitude to my photography and I’m finding myself taking it everywhere with me, bringing it out at a moment’s notice as I spot a form I like, a colour combination that strikes me, or simply the texture of an area of concrete. The stairwell below struck me as the lighting was beautiful and discrete, edging the forms delicately in yellow. The concrete itself has that wonderful texture of the Hayward Gallery walls, I can’t help but run my fingers over it.

I spotted this solitary cloud, edged in red, as I walked around the concrete maze of the National Theatre. It was there for a couple of minutes as the sun rapidly set over London and I quickly picked off this shot. There is very little post-processing in this shot, only a tweak of the levels to boost the contrast and colour. For about fifteen minutes the entire Southbank was bathed in a huge array of colours and I ran around shooting fast and loose. The new camera is just perfect for this type of photography, it just oozes ways to experiment and play.

For more in this series of shots, and other photographs taken with my new camera, head over to my Flickr page.