Commuters

On my way to Tate Modern in the early morning I found myself confronted by hoards of commuters all walking to their offices in the opposite direction. All a bit unnerving for a country boy such as myself. I stopped to try to convey my feelings by using a slow shutter speed to blur the crowds. In the absence of a tripod I shot blind with the camera pulled down to chest height by it's strap. I am so pleased that I am no longer a part of the morning commute although it's true that it was never like this in Jersey.

Photographic exhibitions are all over town at the moment and Tate Modern are staging one of the biggest in a joint showing of street photography by the American William Klein and Daido Moriyama from Japan.

This exhibition is huge (£14 entry fee) and is spread over many rooms containing hundreds of framed prints,wall murals ,artworks and short films. I doubt you can take it all in during one visit. For anyone seriously into confrontational black and white street photography it's probably a must-see. I found William Klein's work the most accessible but could not relate to Moriyama's small grainy fuzzy 'soot and whitewash' images.

Two things stood out for me: in a short film interview Klein said that if a photographer had say 250 images taken at 1/250sec then that body of work showed one seconds worth of that artists life. Food for thought. In another film Moriyama said he only ever used a small compact camera and was filmed walking the streets looking like a tourist snapper.

After a few enjoyable hours spent at the Tate it was mid afternoon and time to leave London after a most enjoyable stay. As I emerged the rain was just starting, the Isle of Wight is going to seem very quiet for a while.

I have added a category to my blipfolio called Christmas,Bond Street which can be viewed HERE