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InspirationPhotography

London street photographs that capture dozens of moments in one frame

London Tableaux is an ongoing project by photographer Allan Grainger where he focuses on well-known locations throughout the city to observe and capture people there over a two-hour period.

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Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist

Via Creative Boom submission. All images courtesy of the artist

The resulting pictures are recorded moments, layered on top of one another, that creates a representation of each place within a single frame. These tableaux function as a kind of fictional document, showing layers of time, rather than a one-off event.

Grainger explains: "The French poet Charles Baudelaire wrote about the ghosts that the imagination meets on every street corner of Paris. The pictures in London Tableaux are traces that reveal the city's identity, and the formed tableau is the result, in part, of the imagination. To quote the photographer Jeff Wall 'One of art's greatest qualities is its presentation of the mystery of identity'. What interests me about this idea is the challenge of demonstrating the mystery of the city's identity in an urban tableau."

Dozens of visitors scattered across the grand neoclassical steps of St Paul's Cathedral, some sitting, standing or walking, captured as layered moments within a single photograph
Multiple pedestrians carrying yellow shopping bags walk through an urban passageway, captured as layered moments over time in Allan Grainger's London Tableaux project
A courtyard outside a historic London building with bollards in the foreground and various visitors walking, standing and gathering throughout the space during daytime
Multiple visitors walk past and interact with a large dark bronze sculpture of a seated figure in a public plaza surrounded by period brick buildings
A statue of a standing figure overlooks a London square where multiple people move through the scene across a two-hour period, captured as layered moments in a single photograph
The facade of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in London with multiple pedestrians and visitors captured at different moments across the street and entrance area
Multiple figures overlaid at different moments on the steps of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, London, captured as a composite tableau by Allan Grainger
Composite photograph showing multiple moments of people moving through the Hayward Gallery's exterior plaza, with brutalist architecture, yellow safety barriers and directional signage visible
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