THE BIG SMOKE

As diverse as its population of 8.8 million residents, London’s urban landscape is multi-faceted beyond expectation. My photographic odyssey started in the busy streets of Brixton, once the regular stomping ground of pop icon David Bowie. To a certain extent, London’s more obscure neighborhoods are comparable to those of its American counterparts: Harlem in New York City, the Mission in San Francisco, or even Echo Park in Los Angeles. But there’s something more mysterious about the outskirts of Central London. With just a long wool coat on my back and a camera on hand, I abandoned my journalistic tendencies and left it as is — something of a mystery. Sometimes, stories that live within are better left untold to give way for future discoveries.

One interesting fact: London tried to compete with the Eiffel Tower by building a structure that was taller and on a much grander scale than that of the French icon. But the construction had to be stalled and the structure demolished because it proved to be unsteady. In the spirit of letting bygones be bygones, The Shard which is currently the tallest skyscraper in Western Europe, soars magnificently like the crown jewel of the city in these modern times. An extraordinary infrastructure with an arresting silhouette, The Shard London's physical presence alone holds its own against any other architectural feat from any era.