MONTHLY CHALLENGE|TRAVEL|TRAVEL WRITING|WRITING|CREATIVE WRITING
Urban Diary
Out and about in Londontown on Armistice Day
I feel torn. On the one hand, the challenge by the editors of Globetrotters is right up my street. I love black and white photography and given half a chance I would turn most of my images into slate-grey snaps. On the other hand, we’re enjoying a glorious autumn in good ol’ Londontown. Trees in parks are ablaze in rich yellow-gold, and pavements are flooded with bronze-dark leaves. Switching to monochrome pictures feels like an act of treason against nature. One that should see the culprit hanged from a copper-coloured sycamore.
In the end, I relented. I justified my decision by focusing on the meaning of the photos on this most solemn of weekends. On Saturday just gone I was leading a group on a walk towards St Paul’s Cathedral (entry is free on Armistice Day, but the only two spaces available for visitors are the ground floor and the crypt) when we accidentally found ourselves in the middle of a crowd as part of the Lord Mayor’s Show. Multicoloured floats and traditionally (and not so traditionally) dressed performers filed past us.
When I looked at my (now black and white) pictures later on, I realised that the monochrome tones suited them completely. The shaft of light penetrates through the windows of the ground floor of St Paul’s Cathedral, one of the towers of Christchurch Greyfriars Church, the lonely bicycle in Barts Square, and the crowds photographing the parade. This was not just London honouring the fallen, but also celebrating the living. This was also an autumn-tinted nostalgic London. The one I moved to almost twenty-six years ago. A London I’ve learned to love both in full colour and in black and white.
Shoutout to these ‘trotters for their lovely contributions to this month’s challenge
