St Paul’s, City of London Paternoster Square, City of London City of London The Royal Exchange, City of London The Royal Exchange, City of London City of London The London Stock Exchange, City of London City of London City of London City of London City of London City of London Cheapside, City of London City of London Bank Junction, City of London Taxis Protest Bank, City of London Lloyd’s of London, City of London City of London City of London City of London City of London City of London City of London Outside Lloyd’s of London, City of London City of London Tunnel, Liverpool Street Station, City of London
City of London, a London street photography project,
by Social Documentary Photographer Michael Wayne Plant
Michael Wayne Plant started to photograph the City of London in January 2016, developing this ongoing project as he has progressed originally planned to take about two years to look for traces of the financial world on the social landscape of the city, with Brexit changing the City the project has evloved and will feature this as part of the final project. Michael is predominantly using street photography techniques to make the images for this project, seeking to make images of what he encounters and sees as he ventures repeatedly into the city. The Social Landscape of the city is changing as Michael makes these images with new contraction changing the physical spaces which the city workers inhabit all the time this is making London a dynamic and interesting place to make images. Photography has the power to show how cities are used and this is what attracts Michael to this project as the City is ever changing, Street photography lets me get in close and with time build up a picture of how the social landscape evolves within the City.
The project involves lots of walking the city, watching and waiting for elements to form into a photograph, the art of the street photographer is not easy as it takes time to find the right combination of elements to make a coherent image that also tells a story. Street photography has a tendency to be all about surface, that is one of the problems that I am seeking to overcome by spending sufficient time in making the images for this project. Some days, I get one or two images others none, that is the nature of the project and I will not really know which images will make the final edit until I have finished. For me street photography has been a great way into this project. I would now like to gain access to some of the larger financial institutions like Lloyd’s of London, The London Stock exchange or maybe one of the big banks who may be leaving because of Brexit, if anyone can help with ganging access that would be greatly appreciated.