About 15 months ago, I start photographing in the City of London, doing street photography documentary project of city workers. I aimed to be in the City at least twice a week, to spend my time walking the City. So far apart from a few weeks, I have managed to achieve this. It has been really really fascinating and I have learnt a lot about how the City functions, the patterns that exist within the City. I have learnt that certain buildings become hubs, around which specific industries exist. For example: the Lloyd’s of London building with its insurance market, has lots of people constantly coming and going, with their folders. I suspect that it is in part because not all companies have all their offices within the building, they have desks there and offices elsewhere, but to register the contracts they need to go to the building with their paper files. It is interesting that share trading does not work like that, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) does not have that pattern. The workers who visit the LSE are also more informal than the insurance workers, who have to wear their jackets and ties. The codes that exist are interesting, and I am slowly learning them.

I have found there are certain times of the day that are busier and that at times the City can actually feel rather quiet, but the average worker does not experience the City this way, as they are at their desks when it is quieter and all out on the streets, when it is at it busiest. They go home and arrive in rush hour, they have lunch at similar times. It is these patterns that I have learnt than enable me to make the most of my days photographing.  I will next be concentrating on the early morning rush hours, these will be my next priority, as it gets warmer and it it light earlier, enabling me to work earlier in the day. Light is something that I chase as the tall buildings create lots of shadows, this is both good and bad for photography. It creates I have found reflections form windows to give interesting light patterns and certain times of the day the light shines down some streets depending on their direction.

I am still working on this photography project, however my approach is changing slowly and I find that what works one day for me does not work the next, it is partly how I am feeling and partly the particular location. I am looking forward to editing the work into something that makes sense. For now, I am posting images on Instagram as I go, with the intention of getting the work out and seeing where it develops. Once, I feel I am done, I will then edit the images down to something that is far more coherent. This work will then become a book and an exhibition of the work.