“This is a real place”

After moving to London from Western Australia, I found the famous city to be different than I expected in many ways. It’s more beautiful than I imagined, but also a lot more testing than I was prepared for. In this ongoing series I aim to create images that will interest the viewer to know that this is actually London, visually describing the city at this moment. The photos that I create are dark and isolating in tone, but also intriguing and beautiful scenes. This dichotomy is representative of my personal experience living in London and my love/hate relationship with it. My first year in London has seen me forced to move around every month in temporary sublets, encouraging me to explore new areas of the city at night. Along with the housing crisis, the soaring cost of living is making it even harder to live in this amazing city. All of these photos are shot in East and North London, where I have spent my time living and working. I exclusively used Ilford’s 35mm HP5 plus film, a company native to East London. My intention to shoot using a harsh, small radius flash was to imply a spotlight being shone on the “other side” of the city, a small glimpse illuminated for only a moment.