View from the upper deck
I'm a big fan of street photography: the act of walking and interacting with others in a public space can be both enjoyable and photographically satisfying.
Street photography requires lots of patience: waiting for the various elements to merge into a pleasing picture and ensuring you are in the right place at that moment usually means lots of frustration and missed opportunities.
One man who has taken this a step further and decided to let fate rule is Przemek Wajerowicz. For a number of years, he has been photographing London from the top deck of one of the city's icons, the double decker bus, and his work can be seen on his website, .
Once he has selected his seat, then that's it - the scenes pass by the window and he has to rely on some luck and a good eye to make the most of this viewpoint.
You'd think this would be a thankless pursuit, but looking at his work, it's soon clear this is far from the case. Przemek seeks moments of visual harmony, or on occasion just something that catches his eye - often amusing, but always using colour, form and timing to good effect.
This is no short-term idea, Przemek said:
"I plan to travel on every TFL double decker route, from the first to the very last stop in both directions. Once all the routes have been completed, I will try to publish a book with tightly edited pictures from the project."
He devotes a day a week to the project as well as taking pictures on his daily commute to work, posting a picture to his website every day.
Przemek's follows in the footsteps of Tom Wood, whose project, , captured the city of Liverpool from the seat of a bus over a period of 15 years. Wood's pictures often portray the occupants of the bus, using reflections to create an almost unreal world.
Przemek takes a more literal view, relying on reality to offer up juxtapositions of people and colour, depicting the variety of scenes which we encounter, and which we often walk past, on a daily basis. To add to the feeling of continuity, he uses a digital camera with one lens, a 50mm.
He notes that:
"The main difficulty is obviously that the bus is moving and you really don't have the same control as, for example, walking. You don't have the luxury of waiting until the situation unfolds and every shot is largely determined by the pace of the bus. There have been many occasions where I have been a split second too late which can be frustrating, but I guess that makes whole thing more challenging and therefore more interesting."
Given the challenges of photographing in public areas, I was curious to know if Przemek had ever encountered any problems. He said:
"Generally, I have never had a problem with either people in the bus - though I have been asked few times by fellow passengers out of curiosity why am I taking pictures - or people I am photographing. I try to be discreet, and those that do notice can often be quite forthcoming about having their picture taken. But the moment is over very quickly and I'm usually away before anyone has a chance to complain!"
I wish Przemek well in his quest.
And I'm always on the lookout for interesting photographic projects such as this from around the UK, and indeed further afield. Do drop me a line or leave a comment below if you are working on anything at present.
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