London Street Photography. Behind the Photo No7. Ghostly Commuters

Ghostly Commuters: Waterloo and City Line, Waterloo Underground

Part 7 of Behind the Photo……. delving into the world of blur, ICM and commuters in the rush hour in London. Does this photo stand up to closer scrutiny, are advanced aspects of creativity at play here or is it just a photo taken by somebody rushing into a crowd with a camera and see if anything appears in the screen afterwards that resembles a photo? 

 This photo was taken Waterloo Station in the Underground Station part on 16 January 2024. 

  

Basics How was it taken? Taken by walking in the opposite direction of the flow of these angry commuters, waving the camera around like a crazy person and seeing if anything resembling a photo will be the result. Lets just say I was not the flavour of the month down there, one person looks like he is about to deck me. Experimentation is key in photography……maybe stepped over ther mark with this photo. 

  Camera Used: Nikon S9100 

  Focal Length: EXIF says around 100mm FF equiv. 

  Weather Conditions: Irrelevant I am underground. 

  Positives: 

  Composition: Considering this is such a random photo, there is some sort of rule of thirds going on here on the horizontal. Otherwise no evidence of any composition whatsoever. I mean nothing apart from a faint hint of leading lines? 

  Negative space? None 

  Rule of odds? Didn't count how many people but i would say....None 

  Layering: Some but not really it's a sort of foreground fading back into background   

Undisturbed scene: Getting some looks here so I would say the scene has been SEVERELY disturbed! 

  Painterly? A slight painterly effect due to the ICM blur going on here but people are still just recognisable.? 

  Story: Very strong indeed….documentary meets Fine Art Street. Commuter hell is the theme. 

  Context: Could be any tube station in any major city around the world so geographical context is non existent BUT the Waterloo and City Line with half the W missing gives the game away and yes it is certainly London 

  Technically: All technicals have been thrown out the window here. This is not a photo for the sharp and shiny brigade and blown out highlights seal the imperfect photo message. In technical terms it is "a dogs breakfast" 

  Lighting and Tonality: Reasonable tonality leaning more to the brighter end of the spectrum but no dark and moody here. Doesn't need it. 

  Mood: The mood here is subject generated, not by the lighting. The mood seems to generally be "get me out of here" 

  Subject? Possibly the women looking in the foreground, they seem to be central but "commuters" is the subject….nothing more. 

  Saul Leiter? No Saul Leiter here. No Daido Moriyama here either. Maybe a dash of Ernst Haas? You could say it's Alex Webb on steroids but it is void of any connections and all his people have space around them? People are rammed in like sardines here...so no space at all. 

  

Negatives: Is it London? BUT the "Aterloo and City Line sign? Camera angle possibly could have been higher? Does this even count as a photo if you are not even looking at the back of the screen? Not much in the way of structure or compositional elements? A bit bland in tonality terms. No trademark FJ drama in the lighting department? 

  Summary: This was posted on Instagram back when I had an Instagram account as part of a set taken down the hell that is Waterloo Station during the rush hour. One UK Street Tog called the photos "Super Ghostly Commuter Images" and hit the follow button instantly. So there is something there. Different ….er yes, random…..yes that as well. Is it a creative masterpiece....not so sure???? 

 MY RATING: If a master photo is a 9 or 10….. I personally rate this as another questionable 7/10 maybe stretching to a 7.5. Photo purists would be shaking their heads in horror and give it a firm 2/10. Would Tate modern be interested in this………the jury is out on that one……probably not?????