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Mind the Gap
Ask nearly anyone to describe the London Underground and you will be greeted with words such as hot, busy and crushed. However, when pressed your respondent may reveal what they are referring to is only the very central portion of this vast railway network.
Currently consisting of 253 miles of track, this is a service where the majority of its length lies outside central London and it is in Mind the Gap by Simon James that we find this flipside portrayed. The photographs here give us a reminder of a distant world we certainly think we should know, but don’t; like a selection of postcards from foreign places never visited yet strangely familiar. We see names such as Cockfosters, Morden and Uxbridge only on signs - surely these places do not really exist? Slowly what dawns on us is that the Underground has a schizophrenic side and an alternate existence altogether hidden.
The absence of people in the majority of photographs suggests these as soulless parts of the capital. People bring movement, chatter and warmth. Yet all that are shown are very cold, sometimes ghostly reminders through abandoned ticket machines, empty photo booths and rusted fire buckets. The forgotten, overgrown lines appear left behind as central London busies itself with video surveillance, electronic swipe tickets and 21st Century architecture.
However, James does not just show us these stations as forgotten relics. What comes across is their importance in the symbiotic existence of the Underground. The centre cannot exist without its Zone 6 cousins. They circle the capital like a ring of silent guards, carefully issuing their trains into the city, only to gather them up again at night with tales of what lies at the core.
Avoiding cluttered images, James’ stark photographs show the tube at its most quiet - a far cry for many of us who link the tube with everything that is London at its most hectic. Mind the Gap should therefore act as an antidote to anyone who has found themselves cursing that daily crush at King’s Cross.
Spie. 14.04.03
Mind the Gap (2001) by Simon James is published by HarperCollins.
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