Lumiere London

Whenever I’m working for a client based in or near London, I try to find things to see and do in the capital after work. With that in mind, last Friday I jumped on the train to Waterloo to see Lumiere, a festival of illuminated art.

Of course, this being London, many of the pieces were undermined by the shear number of people attracted to them like moths to a flame – the sculptures situated in Grosvenor Square proving particularly difficult to appreciate. The most effective were those that took account of the need to address a large audience without being obstructed by it; Janet Echelman’s 1.8 London, a large illuminated net floating above Oxford Circus like an alien Jellyfish, was possibly the best example of this. So too was Patrice Warrener’s The Light of The Spirit, a gorgeous projection onto the facade of Westminster Abbey.

A festival clearly designed for the Instagram generation, there was no shortage of eye candy, yet I headed home feeling somewhat dejected, unable to capture any photos of significant value. With iPhone 6S in hand, I was surprised to find that even this supposedly capable camera had failed to capture the finer details present in some pieces, the image quality of anything I zoomed in on revealing itself to be poor when viewed on a larger screen. It was also blimin’ cold, so whereas I should have been more patient, and taken the time to consider compositions, instead I fell into my old habit of pointing and shooting at things.

Anyway, I seem to be moaning a lot here, which is slightly odd as it really wasn’t a bad way to spend an evening in London.