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City Photos

CITY OF LONDON: A SOLITARY JOURNEY

In 1988, following the launch of my first book, “The Magic of Kew”, I decided to do another book. “The City of London” was published by Herbert Press and New Amsterdam Books, in 1989.

I had been gratified in how easy it was to walk all around Kew Gardens in a single visit, and realising that the London’s financial district, the City, it seemed a good idea to combine my love of architecture with another walking tour.

I went into the City every weekend on my motorbike, parked it everywhere, and had the entire place to myself, since so much fewer people live in this part of London. Having sold some postcards to the Corporation of London, it wasn’t hard to get them to put their name to the book, since it could be published in the 800th anniversary of the Corporation.

My research of the history of London involved scanning many books in the Guildhall Library. One voloume was amazing in its range of both facts and legends, and I was able to discover many secrets the City holds, including access to many of the Livery Companies.

The book was launched with a 6 month exhibition on one of the walkways of Tower Bridge, and although I didn’t sell a single print, following a second exhibition at Lloyds, one kind ‘name’ was so impressed by the work that he bought the entire collection – twich in fact, since the IRA Broadgate bombing destroyed the first set.

One sad thing I found was that although the City gave me many many gifts, which I found to my joy simply by looking under my dark cloth at the 4×5″ viewfinder (a dim f5.6 or f8 view, upside down and back to front), I would often look up and see who was around that I could show it to, only to find that there was never anybody there. So my secrets were shared only with some special friends, like “Bubbles” the cat, who remained completely still for 30 sec0nds, warming his ears inside a lampshade of a shop in Leadenhall Market, while I held my breath and the cable release.

Like the Kew photos, the City series are some of my most early professional work, and are sold in limited edition prints.

Enjoy.

Bankofengfromtube Bank of England from Bank Underground ©James Bartholomew