Hawkes' Eye View

October 11, 2007 11:20 AM

Some pretty cool aerial photos of London at night from photographer Jason Hawkes.
posted by dersins (15 comments total)

I wish they were bigger so I could make desktop wallpaper out of them.
posted by sociolibrarian at 11:44 AM on October 11, 2007

In the days before LAN parties, it was mass Subbuteo that ruled the roost.
Nice pics.
posted by Abiezer at 12:17 PM on October 11, 2007

Anyone else get that uber-creepy ad for Getty Images?
posted by delmoi at 12:25 PM on October 11, 2007

The big glowing pyramid on top of the tower in Canary Wharf inspired some fairly entertaining flights of psychogeography at the time, as I recall.
posted by Abiezer at 12:44 PM on October 11, 2007

Awesome post.

Wow, Abiezer, that guy sure is a narcissist. Does he spend all day reading books about himself and sneering?
posted by nasreddin at 1:07 PM on October 11, 2007

delmoi - Yes. Yes I did. It makes me scared of going to Getty's image collection, that's for sure.
posted by spiderskull at 1:08 PM on October 11, 2007

It's Stewart Home, baby! All part of the Defiant Pose.
posted by Abiezer at 1:10 PM on October 11, 2007

I'd never heard of him before, but Christ, what an asshole. Epater les bourgeois got tired, like, a century ago.
posted by nasreddin at 1:16 PM on October 11, 2007

To continue the derail (apologies, dersins), about the only thing I really know at all of his was his skinhead queer porn novel. That was quite a hilarious and timely intervention during a resurgence of street fascism, so he gets a free pass off me, though I understand he pisses off people by the bucket-load.
posted by Abiezer at 2:13 PM on October 11, 2007

Oh, he's that fucking guy? I randomly bought and read this book of his almost 10 years ago at Powell's. I found everything about it utterly banal and forgettable. The only lasting impression I had was that the author was a self-indulgent wanker who clearly thought he was being outrageous and innovative, but was really just being trite.

And a poor prose stylist to boot.
posted by dersins at 2:24 PM on October 11, 2007

Five out of seven photos of "London" actually of Canary Wharf and the City financial district where the lights burn all night in empty offices and no-one cares about their carbon footprint. He's no fool this boy. Those banks have our money to burn to buy photos like that for their boardrooms and exhibition stands. There's a lot more to London than this. Come see us somtime.
posted by terrymiles at 2:37 PM on October 11, 2007

That synopsis has a kind of awful familiarity too now you mention it, dersins. I really shouldn't have posted just about the first link that cropped up on a search for "psychogeography" and "Canary Wharf."
It was just something the shots of yon big shiny pyramid brought to mind. I think it was actually some weird little pamphlet from the London Psychogeographical Association, or maybe Ian Sinclair.
posted by Abiezer at 2:39 PM on October 11, 2007

These photos are taken from a helicopter? How does he manage the long exposures?
posted by Nelson at 3:26 PM on October 11, 2007

There's a lot more to London than this.

I too was struck by the prevalence of photos here of that particular clump of skyscrapers. Boring.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 6:36 PM on October 11, 2007

I dunno ... Having just been there - I don't think these quite do it justice
posted by specialk420 at 8:21 PM on October 11, 2007