Canary Wharf after dark, once home to container ships and tenements it has been transformed into one of London’s most sought after financial districts. The juxtaposition of money and history makes this corner of Tower Hamlets shimmer with creative inspiration for photographers and artists.
A few years ago I moved into a flat close by Canary Wharf. As I passed through the area’s bars, restaurants, and underground shopping centre I decided to document my experiences.
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Canary Wharf was one of the busiest docks in the world
However, with the rise of container ships, it was no longer fit for purpose and closed in 1980. Its past is still everywhere to be seen, with a lot of the old docks' waterways still preserved along with the two marinas.
Now, it is home to some of the world’s richest companies and exclusive residential properties.
The combination of the strong architecture, superb lighting and water make it a truly unique location.
When I started this project, I decided it would run very differently from every collection I’d put together before. I no longer have an Instagram account so post on Flickr more, but the biggest change for me has been that I no longer chase the likes and followers.
This project was scoped, shot, and edited in its entirety before anything went onto social media.
I believe this has given me a stronger idea of what works and holds the collection together in a way that couldn’t be achieved if I’d uploaded promising shots to Instagram and Twitter as I progressed.
The requirement to post shots each day alters my creative process so by sidestepping all of this and waiting until the entire project is finished before promoting it, I’ve been able to create something which feels truly special.
I started shooting when the clocks went back in November 2021, taking multiple long walks around the area
I got to know Canary Wharf and the surrounding places and the spots where I could explore the intersection between buildings and people.
I learnt where the light really worked, and in the run-up to Christmas became a regular in the area during the early evening, documenting what I saw.
After Christmas, I took a short break during the coldest weather and allowed myself time to live with the shots I’d taken. I found the photos I felt had the most potential and printed them to display on my corkboard as I edited.
Out of the 50 shots which had made it out of Lightroom, I reduced the shots I was happy with down to 10.
I resumed shooting again at the end of February. This I found hard going. Initially, I was concentrating on the people of Canary Wharf. While I was cautious not to take close up shots, I saw this project as a human story. However, this made it a mixed collection and I wasn’t happy with the direction it was taking.
On a rainy Saturday, I went back and looked again at the shots I’d taken and realised I could see a bigger picture.
The interaction between people, architecture, and light emerged.
Shots I had discarded because the people were shadows and faceless suddenly felt as though they were the story. Combined with a saturated cold light edit, it all started to come together.
I identified 20 shots that told a story. The tale of Canary Wharf, a place where people live, work, commute, and eat and drink but that still feels cold and empty.
After being so obsessed with getting closer, I realised the characters of this story were merely stick figures in a mass of concrete and glass.
Out of the 20 shots I’d picked out that reflected this new sense of scale, I went back and reshot a number of them now I knew what I was aiming for.
Finally, I had a project review with the photography tutor I worked with in New York, Christine Callahan, having a completely fresh set of eyes was incredibly valuable as she has never visited Canary Wharf. She helped me edit down the collection and remove shots that were interrupting the flow and didn’t fit the narrative.
As Summer rolled around and the evenings became lighter I had to shoot later and later which changed the types and amount of people, so at this point, I decided to end the project.
I waited for the right people and the right moment which allowed the light bouncing off the architecture to engulf the scene.
I’m very happy with the result.
It’s a new view for me and a new process that I think I’ll be sticking with.
It’s tempting to say Canary Wharf is soulless, but there is a community, it’s just they inhabit a glass, steel, and water world lit by tungsten.
Some people might even say Canary Wharf is ugly, but for me, it has incredible beauty and my goal was to capture some of that within my photos.
