Shadows of St Paul’s
Where memory, movement, and stillness converge
Shadows of St Paul’s
Where stillness meets the passing of time
This photograph was made during a return to London at a meaningful point in my life.
Years later, I found myself standing on the Millennium Bridge, a structure that did not exist during my earlier years in the city. I stood still in the centre of the bridge while the world moved around me. Hundreds of people passed by, softened into shadows and ghostlike forms by a long exposure, fleeting traces of human presence moving toward St Paul’s Cathedral.
St Paul’s rises in the centre of the frame, unmoved by pace or pressure. Dark clouds gather above, and the lines of the bridge lead every shadow and every step forward, drawing the viewer into the heart of the image.
The Journey That Brought Me Back
An award, a city, and an older memory
I was in London to receive the award for Animal Portrait at Wildlife Photographer of the Year, but being back stirred memories far older than that moment. In the 1980s and 1990s, I worked in the City of London as a money broker.
Many lunch breaks were spent walking or jogging along the South Bank near the Oxo Building, often stopping to look across the river toward St Paul’s Cathedral. At the time, the cathedral was simply part of daily life, familiar, steady, almost unnoticed.
Returning years later, I found the city both changed and unchanged. Glass towers, steel cranes, and modern structures rose around the skyline, while the cathedral remained, quietly anchoring the city across decades.
A Moment That Lives With You
Where memory becomes part of a space
This image is about return and reflection. About standing between who we were and who we have become. The people pass, the city evolves, yet some things endure.
In holding still while the world rushed past, I found a quiet meeting point between past and present. A moment shaped by memory, movement, and time, captured on a bridge that did not exist when the story first began.
