I’ve been posting these photos up all over my social media feed lately; these are images I’ve made in Photoshop from photographs I have taken during my many visits to Iceland over the years. Ever since the first time I went to Iceland it has struck me how the landscape can be represented by bands of colour, from the green of the aurora in the sky through the white snow-capped mountains and glaciers, the bare black rock, the green (or brown) of the grass and the black sand beaches that lead into the deep blue-grey of the north Atlantic ocean. Continue reading Impressions of Iceland→
Spiral staircase at CitizenM London Bankside hotel (click image to view larger)
Once again this is an example of looking the other way. As part of my work as the London photographer for Hotel Tonight, I have been sent to some pretty spectacular hotels and apartments in and around the capital. One of the ones that impressed me most in 2012 was CitizenM London Bankside, part of a Dutch chain of hotels which feature identical budget rooms alongside highly decorated public areas. The Bankside hotel is in a converted office building and features automated check-in via computer terminals and a wooden spiral staircase from the ground to the first floor.
I love spirals, in nature or otherwise, so I set my camera on the tripod at the bottom of the staircase and pointed straight up. Craning my neck to view the display on the back of the camera, no doubt attracting puzzled looks from hotel guests and staff, I aimed the camera up along the axis of the spiral staircase towards the black globular lampshades hanging from the first floor ceiling, and ended up with a photo that is almost abstract, fooling the eye with the combination of sweeping curves and radiating wooden slats.
I’ve taken hundreds of photos of hotels over the past two years, but this one is probably my favourite still.
