While much of my architectural photography work focuses upon capturing images of individual buildings and their more immediate surroundings, I do occasionally, when time permits, capture the bigger picture. Photographing cityscapes and skylines addresses the wider context of the changing architectural make-up of a city and its impact on those that experience it over time.
Most of the images in this collection focus on London and document its rapid transformation from a predominantly low-rise city into one that rapidly embraced high-rise towers to accommodate increased demand and to maximise profits on high land values. With this constant evolution of the skyline it means that even when returning to the same location again and again there will always be something new to capture.
For images sales or to request prints of any of these photographs please contact Alex.
Taken from the rooftop of the very Instagrammable Lai Tak Tsuen building on Hong Kong Island, this view captures the vast sweep of residential towers that proliferate the landscape, with Tsim Sha Tsui just visible across the waters of Victoria Harbour.
Barbican Centre, Silk St, London.
Architects Chamberlin, Powell and Bon's Brutalist masterpiece the Barbican Centre, located in the City of London, is photographed here just as the evening sun was superimposing a wrap of golden light around two out of the three, concrete residential towers. Endlessly explorable the Estate is a concrete maze of innovate 1970's architecture, a self-contained city, which includes; a theatre, art gallery, cinema, library, tropical plant filled conservatory and residential towers among much more.
Architecture tours of the Barbican Estate take place regularly and I highly recommend them if you wish to learn more about the buildings history and design, you will also gain access to some of its hidden features.
Photography: Copyright © Alex Upton
In the foreground of this photograph you can see the numerous chimneys adorning the top of Wormwood Scrubs Prison exhaling their misty vapours on a chilly winter morning in West London. In the far distance the silhouette of St George Wharf Tower, located in Vauxhall, is just about visible.
Photograph of a barley visible London skyline on a cold winters morning.
Shrouded in an early morning fog and frost, London in this photograph looks particularly reminiscent of its industrial past with the large chimneys in the foreground bellowing out smoke into a dense sky of indeterminate grey. The city, in the far distance appears transient as if fading from view, the peak of Renzo Piano's Shard skyscraper just about visible, puncturing a gathering of sullen cloud. In the foreground, several early morning walkers brave the frosty pastures of Wormwood Scrubs Park.
Photography: Copyright © Alex Upton