Down to the Subway

A staircase going underground, lit rather better than it needed to be, and empty for about eight seconds in the middle of a working afternoon.

Transport architecture is designed to be moved through rather than looked at, which is why it photographs so well when nobody is moving through it. Take the people out of a station and what is left is a very deliberate set of surfaces.

Eight seconds

Waiting for an empty frame in a public building is mostly patience and slightly bad manners. You stand to one side, you keep the camera down, and you take the frame when the gap comes. If somebody looks at you, you stop.

1. Find the angle first, while the stairs are busy.
2. Set exposure and focus on a person standing where you want the gap.
3. Wait. The gap comes every couple of minutes in most stations.
4. Take two frames, not twenty. You already know it is right.

The handrail catching the light down the middle is what makes it work. Without that line the photograph is a grey rectangle with steps in it.