Stairwell with a view, Barbican

Leaving a conference at the Barbican Centre in London, I had to quickly snap this scene with my iPhone.

The lovely team at Clearleft had invited me to their excellent Leading Design conference in November last year—two days of interesting talks on design leadership (my day job)—but I had to leave pretty immediately at the end of the second day to catch my train back to the North East.

The Barbican Centre is a performing arts venue at the centre of the brutalist Barbican Estate in London, with plenty of interesting angles and wide open, concrete-clad spaces. The outers stairwells of the arts centre are fully framed glass half-cylinders, which on your average grey day in London actually feel quite drab and even somehow dark when inside them.

As I left the venue on that late November afternoon though—with the light outside dropping fast and the lights on inside the stairwell—it was transformed into a far more interesting scene. A conference attendee standing checking her phone on a landing in the centre, while another in a suit walked down the stairs just in front of me added some activity and further interest but I only had a couple of seconds to quickly get my phone out and take the shot.

Thankfully the image came out pretty well, and having shot in raw on the iPhone Pro I was able to do a little light post-processing in Lightroom to tidy up the contrast and colours.

I’ve mentioned before, but I really do miss the more street-style photography that’s so much easier in a big city like London since moving away. It’s swings-and-roundabouts of course because I have access to way more interesting landscapes where I am now.

Anyway, I like the atmosphere of this image and it’s a nice reminder of London.