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Empty London

roberttimothy.com

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The author explains how they took these photos: http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-London-...

Highly recommended.

Clever use of bomb threats.

> I didn't want to cheat and use Photoshop

I was actually hoping he did something clever like take multiple shots and stitch them all together.

Ah well, I suppose this is more noble.

If he had, he could have gotten the three (at least) people out of the second-to-last shot. :-)

It's actually much easier than manual stitching.

Take 3+ shots on a tripod then take the median value of each pixel. Anything that is moving (pedestrians, cars) will vanish.

Example: http://www.creativetechs.com/iq/photoshop_cs3s_automatic_peo...

Now That would be a useful feature on a camera. You could call it the tourist eraser :)

Nokia already has it on the lumia: http://conversations.nokia.com/2013/07/03/nokia-smart-camera...

Capturing parts of central London without people is much more of a feat than editing them out. That said, I agree with his schedule, Sunday mornings are also the only time you can drive around the city as if it's like most other cities in the world (e.g. being able to get over a 15mph average for your trip)

My friend could do this in after effects. I can't remember how. I too was hoping this would some kind of interesting compositing thing...

I can't tell you how excited I am that you shared my work and that it's enjoyed. I mean, I don't wanna get all Sally-Field-at-the-Oscars but the photos and project took ages to plot and it makes it really worth it when so many get to see it - even worth getting soaked to your underwear to get the shot of Big Ben on Christmas morning! So a ga-zillion thank yous. (And they are very definitely not faked or overlayed or multiple shots - as someone says - in the second last photo you can spot a car, presumably with someone in it...)

Brilliant work, definitely appreciated.

The zombie film 28 Days set up a few shots like this in downtown London ... but with a movie budget and some official clearances they were able to get some sunlit shots, which appeared to be taken very early in the morning. It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.

Within the past 10 years, I remember seeing another another film set in NYC which showed a scene in Times Square, completely devoid of people or traffic. It was quite striking. Anyone remember what it was?

EDIT: I see from the other comments it was Vanilla Sky

> 28 Days set up a few shots like this in downtown London [..] which appeared to be taken very early in the morning.

That's some of my favourite "London" film footage. Most of the time London is shown horribly in films, just hamfistedly moving from one obviously recognisable location to another. Even the BBC do this - Spooks and Luther seem to need every outdoor scene to be set in some well-known location, which is not only distracting but a little insulting.

Saying that, because it was obviously so early in the morning for logistical reason it pulled me out of the film, even though I guess in the film's narrative of "we must travel during the day" might neccessitate a "it's morning, thus we are now travelling again" establishing shot.

The outdoor London shots show the protagonist waking up 28 days later and having no idea the apocalypse had just happened: http://vimeo.com/7138423

So it in no way contradicts when you can and can't travel on account of there being zombies everywhere, he doesn't even know about them at that point.

> it in no way contradicts when you can and can't travel on account of there being zombies everywhere

I was meaning the bits when they are walking along the DLR tracks.

Vanilla Sky, also The Devil's Advocate did this elsewhere in NYC. Both were eerie.

The movie version of Godspell is filmed entirely in Manhattan, and the only people ever in shot are the 7-8 characters of the play. It's most amazing for the final shot which pulls away ina helicopter shot of lower Manhattan featuring a half built World Trade Center. It was an amazing effect.

> It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.

28 Days Later is one of my favourite documentaries. It evokes London beautifully, and the zombies are shown in an unbiased manner.

For me that whole scene was topped off by the music which was by God Speed You Black Emperor! if you haven't listened to these guys check them out.

"Downtown" London.

Which part would that be?

I don't mean to snark, that's not a meaningful phrase to this englishman with 10 years London living under his belt. I actually struggle with definitions of downtown or uptown, it's not something we would say. How do they apply to (for instance) NYC which I'm a little familiar with?

--edit-- yes I am drunk and this is a stupid question :)

Near Westminster bridge IIRC, but it's been a while since I saw the film. By US standards downtown would be the shopping district from Marble Arch to Trafalgar Square, if you were thinking of it in commercial terms, or almost all of zone 1. Of course over here Downtown is wherever the most tall buildings ae, whereas in London most of those seem to be in the City.

London is a basically a bunch of villages with dense residential areas filling the gaps between. I've gone whole 6-month periods never going further west in the city than Holborn (Kingsway), and whole years never going south of the river east of Greenwich.

You're suggesting that downtown is Oxford & Regent Streets, i.e. essentially high-street fashion shopping. Thing is, almost every shop on those streets is also in both Westfield malls on either side of the city, and many of the bigger brands are also on dozens of high streets across the city. There's seldom much call for most Londoners to actually go to those streets (IMO).

In a business context, downtown in London is the City, but the tallest buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a privately owned near-island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and barriers that go up on the roads at night.

>The tallest buildings aren't in the City, they're in Canary Wharf, a privately owned near-island with 24-hour guards at all entry points, and barriers that go up on the roads at night.

Not to nitpick but this isn't strictly true. The tallest building is in neither but very close to the City, then the 2nd tallest is in Canary Wharf but the third and fourth are definitely in the City again. You have some in the Wharf and some in the City after that but I am not sure if the difference regarding skyscrapers in the 2 parts is very relevant or explicit anymore.

> In a business context, downtown in London is the City

Well, part of it is, but West End office rents are a lot higher than City rents.

Other than that, I totally agree: London doesn't really have a centre

Midtown. That's an exclusively NYC thing.

In NYC downtown could be the southern portion of Manhattan and pretty much anywhere in Brooklyn. The two most southern (down) areas in the city, not counting S.I. which really doesn't count anyway. That is why the subway signs say Bklyn/Downtown. Uptown would be anywhere north of Central Park in Manhattan or anywhere in the Bronx. The most northern parts of the city. That is why the subway signs say Bronx/Uptown. In NYC the terms 'uptown' and 'downtown' are purely geographical.

In other cases I would consider the term 'downtown' to be the oldest portion of the city. For example in Philadelphia. This would be much harder to pick out in a city like London that's much older.

I live in Washington DC. Here, the term is only used when you are outside of DC and it is used loosely to describe any location inside of DC. If you were in Virginia or Maryland and said you were going 'downtown' that would mean only that you were going to any location inside Washington DC.

I'm a strange city I would assume the term downtown referred to the less kept more rustic area that looks kind of ghetto but is a little more artsy/trendy than the rest of the city.

I am Legend also has some NYC abandoned shots. Though it's not near as amazing as 28 Days Later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_(2009_film) is a great film where the streets of London are almost like a central character.

I was rather hoping that near the end of the photos that one would have a zombie shuffling along...

And the tents were all silent,

the banners alone,

The lances unlifted,

the trumpet unblown.

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,

And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;

And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,

Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib...

Beautiful thanks!

Reminds of the recounting of the fallen angels in Paradise Lost.

Rather than face the awesome wrath of Jesus/God miffed, the to-be-fallen angels into the abyss, drift (well, really, leap in terror, but that doesn't work so well).

Not how they told it to themselves at least, IRRC ^^;

Him the Almighty Power

Hurled headlong flaming from th' ethereal sky

With hideous ruin and combustion down

To bottomless perdition, there to dwell

In adamantine chains and penal fire,

Who durst defy th' Omnipotent to arms.

[...]

What though the field be lost?

All is not lost; th’ unconquerable will,

And study of revenge, immortal hate,

And courage never to submit or yield.

[...]

Here at least

we shall be free; the Almighty hath not built

Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:

Here we may reign secure, and in my choice

to reign is worth ambition though in Hell:

Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.

Thanks for the refresher.

If any book will make one a Christian, Paradise Lost is probably it ;-)

At first I thought he combined several images into one (there was a project a while ago that did that). But after reading that he actually waited for everyone to clear ... that blew my mind. I absolutely can't imagine seeing big ben or piccadilly without a single person in my eyesight.

Absolutely marvellous!

Too bad I'm away for christmas this year, I'd love to stroll trough the empty streets ...

I'm pretty sure he's lying. There's no way for most of these places to clear completely. It's like seeing Times Square empty.

I'm 99% sure it's a composite from multiple exposures.

> It's like seeing Times Square empty.

It's interesting you mentioned this. The pictures reminded me of Vanilla Sky, which prominently features empty Times Square.

Funny you should mention that. Every time I think of Times Square being empty (which can happen at certain angles at certain very early times of day), I think of Roger Ebert's review of Vanilla Sky:

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/vanilla-sky-2001

> Note: Early in the film, there's an astonishing shot of Tom Cruise absolutely alone in Times Square. You might assume, as I did, that computers were involved. Cameron Crowe told me the scene is not faked; the film got city permission to block off Times Square for three hours early on a Sunday morning. Just outside of camera range there are cops and barricades to hold back the traffic.

London streets were empty in 28 Days Later as well.

They shut down that whole area for 2.5 hours for that scene.

On a rainy, cold day and very early, I don't see why it's so hard to believe. Especially if you're willing to wait for the stragglers to walk out of the frame.

Also, consider the clustering illusion. Even with a fair number of people, there will tend be gaps and all you need to do is choose the right perspective that focuses on them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clustering_illusion

Besides, I really don't think it'd be worth lying about. The photos are interesting, but not nearly enough to risk a reputation on, especially considering how hard it is to lie to the internet.

Some are much easier to believe than others. Finding empty tube carriages is easy. I think some photos are of Canary Wharf, which IIRC is deserted at weekends.

Side streets in Soho, and Carnaby Street? Again I imagine quite easy.

My office is off of Carnaby Street and I've seen looked down the length of it and not seen a soul. Quite common after midnight, although it gets a lot harder as soon as you step out to Regent Street or the Palladium.

I can't speak for Times Square but I have seen many central parts of London where I/we are the only people around. Much of Central London is not residential.

If it is a merge of multiple exposures - the result is impressive and I would be proud of that fact.

I think it'd be possible to get photos of Times Square virtually empty, though a frame without either a pedestrian or a taxi would be difficult. Was looking through my old photos and found two near such shots, at around midnight...however, I almost always try to capture at least one person in a frame as a reference point for the scene, so I didn't try very hard to get an empty scene :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zokuga/5297956792/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/zokuga/5296132766/

OK, they were during snowstorms, but still :)

There are at least a dozen people in each photo.

And the photos themselves are not wideangle, you can only see a narrow angle, unlike in the submission.

How is this "virtually empty"?

Mostly because I was waiting for people to come into the frame? And because it was around midnightish, a time when people are still leaving Broadway theaters (yes, even during snow) It's "virtually" empty compared to what Times Square is like on a stereotypical day (or night). I think if I waited till around 2-3am, or 5-6 am on a weekday

Sure it is. I've walked through many of those parts of London at times where they've been pretty much deserted.

I agree because there are two people in one of those photos!

Look carefully!!!

I am wondering if there is any connection between this project and Tokyo Nobody by Masataka Nakano

http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka-Nakano/dp/489815...

Thanks for that. The London photos made me think of empty mini-mall photos taken in LA by Cathy Opie. Here's an example:

http://arttattler.com/Images/NorthAmerica/NewYork/Guggenheim...

They were shot in black and white, and when shown in a gallery context, they are very large (4 feet wide or so).

She used a similar technique -- show up early in the morning (like 4am) and be patient. She had do it late enough to be after the clubgoers, junkies, and criminals were asleep, but before regular people were awake.

You can google "cathy opie mini mall series" -- she's better known for her earlier, transgressive lesbian/body images.

I had to catch an early flight and found myself walking around Dubrovnik at 4am. Seeing the wide stone streets, polished by the feet of thousands who were now completely absent, was surreal. I highly recommend waking up extra early in a normally busy city and taking a stroll; you end up seeing and appreciating completely new things.

One summer, a few years ago, a friend and I flew from New York to Iceland. After a jet lagged snooze, we ventured out into Reykjavik town centre around 10am on Saturday morning -- to find the streets completely deserted.

Made sense later on, when we realised that seemingly everyone in town went out after midnight to party through the night.

Boom years when the sun doesn't set...

And Paris is pretty empty early in the morning, too. Check out the 1976 Claude Lelouch 8.5-minute vehicle(!), "C'était un Rendezvous" ("It was a date"). Classic!

http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude-... or other similar.

I'm using linux. This site's scroll behaviour is infuriating.

It was annoying on OS X too.

Yes. Usability fail. OS X often has no scrollbars. Unity has none? My mouse has no horiz-scoll. Wed designers stop doing this. We aren't all using tablets!

What a surprisingly pleasant side-scrolling experience.

If you liked this, you should also check out this beautiful timelapse video of Milan (same concept): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU

I've previously done this kind of thing with an ND filter and long exposures to save getting frustrated by occasional passers-by.

Here's a series of photographs of major cities around the world done using this technique by Lucie & Simon:

http://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic-photographs... http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world

Wouldn't it be "easy" to capture a video of a minute or so and then write an algorithm to keep the parts that were unchanged among all frames? I did something like that ten years or so ago, and it worked very well (it took the mode of each pixel among X frames).

I know. Why didn't he just write a movement recognition algorithm and run his videos through it. It only has to be one frame really.

In many cases that will do, but there will be problem with continuously changing objects, such as ads, escalators and clocks that will be blurred, at least unless a quite sophisticated algorithm is used.

The square mile looks like that on a weekend.

The rest looks like that at 05:30. in summer.

Yes I remember having to go into work to reboot our systems once back in the 80's 200/300 yards from oxford street and it was quiet as the grave.

Many cafes, bars and pubs in the city shut down at the weekend.

In Israel, there is one day a year [1] where the streets actually look like this [2].

(Granted, most of the time you will see plenty of people walking around the streets, or children riding bicycles.)

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israe...

[2] - http://www.demotix.com/photo/862508/tel-aviv-streets-empty-y...

saturdays in Israel are quiet empty as well

Nice work! And to prove they are not phony, time for a game of 'I Spy'! ISWMLE: a cyclist a trash collector possibly a policeman several lit car tail lights

Advances?

I live near quite a few of these. The way to experience this is by being there very early on a Sunday morning or a Bank Holiday. Let me tell you there are few things as eerie as riding a bicycle around Central London and not seeing a single soul. Of course it's not totally deserted, you'll see the odd vehicle especially on the main roads, but there are definitely moments where it feels like being in 28 Days Later.

Preparing for a marathon I always did my saturday long run starting very early in them morning (like 5am or 6am, once I even started at 4am because I had a company event I needed to be at early) and it was definitely...awesome. Especially running along the Thames in Central London during sunrise: there were entire 10/15 minutes stretches without people and even cars.

Reminds me of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is running through downtown Manhattan alone --

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ

I always think it's cool when we're able to capture this sort of rare feat on film, in this case emptying out Times Square for a few brief moments

Times Square is in Midtown. Downtown is the Financial District :)

Nices photos, horrible website usability.

Black page when scripts are disabled. And the photos popping up in random places as you're scrolling? Sigh.

Those photos are great! I've been taking some night shots of street art in London, and because of the long exposure the streets often appear to be empty. You can see some of my photos here: http://advers.com/gallery

You don't even have to get up to experience this - just head into the City of London[1] on a weekend, especially a Sunday. Most of the streets are empty.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London

Gorgeous, but they look more like early morning shots than abandoned city shots. Give me broad daylight or with all the lights off and it'll really feel atmospheric. The extreme saturation also doesn't contribute to a feeling of desertion.

Also, abandoned London is spotless.

This is the London I remember from early morning July 8th, 2005, the morning after the bombings. Was walking around to find a ride to the airport, couple of blocks from the double-decker wreck. Wish not to experience the same again.

That's awesome work! Strangely I cannot believe that a place like Piccadilly Circus is ever empty. It feels so unreal. He must have: a) waited a lot to see the streets clear b) been quite lucky the streets eventually cleared.

Very interesting (and beautiful I might say, seeing the empty streets awaken some beautiful memories), but that's not how London would look like if everyone left. Not even close. Maybe only for the first couple of days.

This is really cool, I've never been to London so I have no reference for how busy the places he photographs typically are. I would love to see a similar project for NYC.

Very busy is probably the only way to describe them. I work not far from where some of these photos were taken where its frustratingly busy at times. You would never think this was possible.

I also enjoyed this collection of "empty" photos of all 270 tube stations:

http://instagram.com/tube270

28 Weeks Later also takes place in an abandoned London.

Nice photos but it also highlights how claustrophobic London is. I live here and don't like how you can never be really alone outside of your own home.

A similar experiment was done in Paris a few weeks ago: http://vimeo.com/74857458

For Americans who want to replicate this, Thanksgiving day around 2 - 3pm is also similarly eerily quiet and a great chance to get a shot like this.

Thanksgiving morning would be better. There is usually a ton of people out in the afternoon picking up last minute things at grocery and liquor stores.

Anyone else notice that the second-to-last photo has 4 or 5 people in the scene, as well as a moving car? Otherwise, well done!

I recommend a photo album "Tokyo Nobody" - similar concept.

The people who left forgot to turn off the lights.

Wow those photos stunning...and thought provoking.

beautiful

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