It’s absolutely freezing but the excitement of being in London diminishes the fact that I hate being cold.
I’ve surprised myself….I’ve found the most wonderful inspiration in the most unlikely of places… the British Underground. After filming for a couple of days I felt a little uneasy… (you know security and all that, however it’s completely understandable.) I saw a sign today stating that it’s illegal to take photos in the underground.!!!! eek
So all I can do is explain what I see and why I think it’s interesting.
The first thing I enjoy is the fact that you are in a tunnel, that wonderful cylindrical shape, which combined with the images of posters and artificial light seem to wrap around you as you walk through them. The sounds are magnified and today we were entertained by the most beautiful classical music played by a busker. Almost every tunnel is tiled in one form or another…. The older the better I think. Some walls have repeat patterns, others are interesting images made by some craftsman many decades ago.
I photographed such images in the NY underground immediately under the World Trade Centre. The images were mosaic eyes depicting different nationalities. They are all gone now.
Here in London the train doors are bright red and the silver windows frame the images of the people they are carrying. Every nationality, so many forms of dress. Tunnels lead to yet another tunnel and the wind whispers through telling you that a train is about to approach. I love the posters and the big red and blue round logo telling you this is an underground framed on a mosaic wall…. Well you don’t really need to know because you’re in there…. but they are going to make sure you’re certain of just where you are. As you can tell I want to photograph it all!!! It’s frustrating.
Today we walked the walk. St Paul’s Cathedral, where I photographed the tiles, wonderful images of cupids and some graffiti carved into the wall. “JH 1791” son Jamie’s initials. It’s 215 years old.
It was freezing around Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. We visited the British Museum and viewed London from the London Eye. We ate sausages and mash in a London Pub and dodged the rain before catching the subway home to our hotel.
