William Eckersley’s Silent Night.

Dark City

William Eckersley (2007 – 2010)

Photographed over four years, this project shows London – normally illuminated by dull, grey daylight – transformed under the cloak of darkness. Garish spotlighting casts deep shadows and silhouettes, with hues of pink, cyan and orange. The stage is devoid of its human players and seems to showcase the scenery’s forgotten beauty, revealing a stark and otherworldly aesthetic in a city drained of its occupants. The built environment, deliberately contrived to service the needs and desires of humanity, makes sense in the context of teeming human life; without this however, its inherent functionality no longer visible, our urban spaces appeared to stand forlorn, waiting to be judged on their genius or folly, beauty or ugliness. Please see details of the book here.

William Eckersley’s Silent Night 

The Photographer Explores the Unseen Side of London’s Dark Empty Streets Fine art photographer William Eckersley reveals the desolate nooks and crannies of London’s vacant nocturnal streets. Dedicating four years to capturing this rarely seen side of the capital, he spent night after night bracing against the cold in winter and taking advantage of the summer's few hours of darkness to achieve the stunning photographs collected in his newest book, Dark City. “At night London is lit up from all these different angles and different light temperatures, from sodium streetlights, fluorescents and halogens,” explains Eckersley of the exaggerated shafts of color illuminating his images. The unexpected structures and surreal vistas he uncovers offer an eerie and otherworldly vision of the iconic city. “The lack of humanity is a really interesting prism to see the city through,” continues Eckersley, who previously documented the capital’s abandoned buildings in his 2006 book Left London.