This picture is part of a series of 85 black and white photographs of London. Entitled “Unreal City”, this photographic... Read More
This picture is part of a series of 85 black and white
photographs of London. Entitled “Unreal City”, this photographic series was
inspired by T.S. Eliot’s famous poem “The Waste Land”. In Eliot’s poem London
is the “Unreal City” in which most of the characters in the poem have their
entrances and exits. The photographs reflect many of the themes of the poem: a
strong sense of alienation; people’s inability to connect meaningfully; the
cruel demands of the city; the failure of religion to provide comfort in this
broken world; and the apparently unbridgeable divide between rich and poor. The
dark humour which is evident in several of the pictures emphasizes the
“unreality” of life in the capital, but also holds out a few rays of hope that
all may not be lost.
This picture explores the theme of towers of the poor versus
towers of the rich. The sparkly glitz of the Heron Tower is reflected in the
instantly recognizable windows of 30 St Mary Axe, better known as the Gherkin,
one of the most famous towers in London. However, the caption suggests that all
is not well in this paradise of capitalism, and that the human (existential)
cost of the narrow pursuit of wealth is a fractured life and a diminished
humanity.