Photographers have been inspired for decades by commuters using subways around the world. From Walker Evans working incognito in New York to Bob Mazzer taking photographs in London totally undisguised, capturing the eccentricity of underground train travel has always been intriguing to photographers.
London is a city that attracts people from around the globe, making it one of the most diverse metropolises in the world. With millions of people using it every day, the London Underground (also referred to as the Tube) has its own distinct collection of moments that display the ups and downs of life together with the segments in between. The recent inauguration of the Night Tubes, which allow the London Underground services to run 24/7 during weekends only, has brought the ebbs and flows of the London nightlife to the gritty underground platforms.
After midnight, you start noticing the nomads and passengers who have taken their defenses down, exhibiting the emotions and the weaknesses that make us all human. In an effort to document the peculiar but serendipitous moments that make underground train travel after midnight special, a group of photographers, including myself, often spends all-nighters in different London Underground platforms. Most of our approaches involve capturing individual passengers or groups of people that catch our eye, trying our best to be unnoticed—and if we’re noticed, capturing a moment where the subject interacts in some way with our presence.
However, our motivations are different. Some photographers in our group Kiran Bhamra Cox and Ed Robertson are focusing on working on their own separate projects involving the London Underground. As an international student, having a limited amount of time to spend in this wonderful city, my main motivation at the moment is to take pictures in the platforms of the London Underground to take with me—moments that I can look back on later in my life, that I can cherish and reminisce about.
Working on this project has brought me to the most diverse range of people I have ever met, from groups of friends on their night out to police arresting criminals, drunks, and nomads. Overall, they contribute to this marvelous diversity of underground commute that is unmatched by any other city. This is just the start. I am hoping to follow Bob Mazzer’s footsteps and continue shooting the London Underground night Tubes for however many more years I get to stay in this fabulous city, in the hopes of capturing the moments that make underground commute after midnight during the weekends unique.
Arif Jawad is a street photographer based in London, UK. His photographs for Apple’s One Night on iPhone 7 campaign have been featured all over the world. Read the ISO interview here.
Follow Kiran Bhamra Cox’s photography:
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Instagram: @kiranbcox
Facebook: facebook.com/kiranbcox
Website: kiranbhamracox.com
Follow Arif Jawad’s photography:
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Instagram: @firadawaj
Twitter:@firadawaj
Follow Ed Robertson’s photography:
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Instagram: @occipitals
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Website: occipitals.net
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