black and white photography by rob gardiner.

[Plaubel Makina 67]

Primrose Hill, a small park adjacent to Regent’s Park in London. It’s windy there, and the view’s so nice.

If the above photograph looks familiar, it is because it was
taken at the same location as one of the greatest and most famous
photographic portraits ever taken, namely Bill Brandt’s shot of Francis
Bacon in 1963, reproduced below. (I’ve got an old 6x7 shot of this
location lying around somewhere, too. I’ll try to scavenge it).

Of course, these are with a 4x5 pinhole camera. A pinhole camera
is a box with a pinhole. There is no lens, viewfinder, meter, or
anything you’d normally find on a camera. A true point and shoot.

Nicknamed ‘The Gherkin’ or ‘The Cigar’, it is formally known as ‘The Swiss Re building’ or ‘30 St Mary’s Axe’. Norman Foster’s latest building, which has quickly become an icon of the London skyline, looks to me more like a huge glass Hindenburg, the wrong way up. You reach the cockpit at the top in a few seconds (one writer said it reminded him of a James Bond set). Built on the site of where an IRA bomb went off many years ago, it dominates the skyline. Buildings this tall and few and far between in London.

Completed in 2003, the building is not designed to be viewable to the public. (From the inside, that is). Even the restaurant near the top is for employees only. Such a shame. This is not New York - Londoners are not used to seeing wide vistas of their city from a great height. There should be some law that insists on public access to such places. Anyway, I was lucky enough to visit the top and an unoccupied (for now) working floor. Apologies to those on slow modems, but here are eight of the photographs of the Gherkin.

Above, the shimmering Thames at sunset. St Paul’s Cathedral is clearly visible, as is the BT Tower (long closed to the public, after an IRA bomb went off) on the right.

Like a set from James Bond.

Tower bridge spanning the Thames, the Castle in front of it, and then the ancient City of London.

Above - what can I say? Triangles are great.

In the distance Canary Wharf, where London’s tallest buildings reside. But on the outskirts, most of us feel they are just pretenders.

Tower 42 on the right, and St Paul’s in the centre.