This is a, somewhat belated, second part of a project started twenty years ago.

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In the early 1990s, I spent some time in and around the Silvertown area of London photographing some of the landscape. In early 2014, I decided to revisit the area with a camera. Or rather two cameras – as well as a modern digital camera, I also brought along the same film SLR, lens and film type that I used all those years ago*.

Below is a selection of recent images, taken in early 2014. Some images from the original project in the mid-1990s, The last iron curtain country, can be seen below.

Whilst these photographs were taken in the same area as the previous visit the landscape has changed so much that, with the exception of obvious landmarks – such as the abandoned factory buildings – it’s hard to ‘superimpose’ the images. And this project was never about that. This part of London (and London itself) evolves in the way that UK cities always have, haphazardly. They grow and develop unevenly, asymmetrically and, most importantly, incompletely.

D Silo, Silvertown, London, 1990sMillenium Mills, Silvertown, London, 1990sTrain, East London 1990sOld factory, SIlvertown, London, 1990sTelecom satellite disks, Silvertown, London, 1990sThames Barrier, Silvertown, London, 1990sTrain and junk yard, East London 1990sWoolwhich Pier, London 1990sEast London, 1990s
* For those interested in the technical aspects, the digital images were taken with a Sony Nex-7 and Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 lens. The film photos were taken with a Topcon RE-2, with a 58mm ƒ1.8 lens and scanned with a dedicated film scanner. The film used was Ilford FP4+. (Although, I have a feeling that some of the film used twenty years ago may have been FP4 – without the plus.)