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Hackney By Night: Eerie and unexpectedly beautiful photographs of London at night

London photographer David George’s Hackney By Night series reveals the unexpected pastoral beauty of London in the dead of the night. The elegiac photographs, which were shot specifically for a new book (of the same name) over 12 months, show the pathways, back streets, canal towpaths, disused buildings, dark waterways, parks and underpasses that stand silent as most of us lie asleep.

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Underpass at night with concrete pillars in foreground, illuminated corrugated metal wall, and parked lorry in shadow beneath the bridge

Using starlight and lamplight, places and scenes that might otherwise appear familiar are rendered hyper-real. Here is a stillness and beauty that might surprise those of us who are exhausted by our busy lives in the city.

Alongside the book's images is a short story by writer and journalist Karen Falconer, taking the reader on a parallel journey into the night of a narrator’s memory. The subtle and often unexplained words infuse each shot with a disquiet and a subtle sense of loss. Hackney takes on two faces, one of tranquillity and beauty and one that hints of a menacing netherworld.

David George has been a photographer for over 35 years and lives and works in East London. His work examines social and political narratives to be found in British man-altered landscape. Discover more about George at www.davidgeorge.eu or buy the new book over at Hoxton Mini Press.

Via direct submission

A brick industrial building at night with boarded windows and a Keeley & Lowe sign, shadowed by towering steel structure and cranes above
A curved path cuts through a nighttime park towards distant illuminated buildings, with a bare tree and green hedges flanking the walkway under a golden-hued sky
Illuminated Victorian building reflected in still water at night, surrounded by bare trees under a hazy sky
Industrial waterside scene at night with turquoise-lit building, bare trees, metal bridge and still canal water reflecting lamplight
Night-time view of a narrow, deserted cobbled alleyway in Hackney lined with brick buildings, illuminated by street lamps casting yellow light across the wet pavement
An illuminated stone monument stands in a graveyard at night, surrounded by headstones and a gnarled tree trunk in the foreground
Illuminated residential tower block at night rising above dark trees and a grassy foreground under a golden sky
Hackney By Night book cover by David George featuring a moody photograph of bare tree branches reflected in water at dusk, published by Hoxton Mini Press
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