Empty London

The author explains how they took these photos: <a href="http://blog.roberttimothy.com/2013/05/Deserted-empty-London-photos-of-British-capital-without-any-people-28-days-later-style-pictures.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.roberttimothy.com&#x2F;2013&#x2F;05&#x2F;Deserted-empty-London-...</a>

The zombie film <i>28 Days</i> set up a few shots like this in downtown London ... but with a movie budget and some official clearances they were able to get some sunlit shots, which appeared to be taken very early in the morning. It was a great Danny Boyle movie, incidentally.<p>Within the past 10 years, I remember seeing another another film set in NYC which showed a scene in Times Square, completely devoid of people or traffic. It was quite striking. Anyone remember what it was?<p>EDIT: I see from the other comments it was <i>Vanilla Sky</i>

And the tents were all silent,<p>the banners alone,<p>The lances unlifted,<p>the trumpet unblown.<p>And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail,<p>And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;<p>And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,<p>Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib#The_poem" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;The_Destruction_of_Sennacherib...</a>

At first I thought he combined several images into one (there was a project a while ago that did that). But after reading that he actually waited for everyone to clear ... that blew my mind. I absolutely can&#x27;t imagine seeing big ben or piccadilly without a single person in my eyesight.<p>Absolutely marvellous!<p>Too bad I&#x27;m away for christmas this year, I&#x27;d love to stroll trough the empty streets ...

I am wondering if there is any connection between this project and Tokyo Nobody by Masataka Nakano<p><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka-Nakano/dp/4898150314" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Tokyo-Nobody-Masataka-Nakano&#x2F;dp&#x2F;489815...</a>

I had to catch an early flight and found myself walking around Dubrovnik at 4am. Seeing the wide stone streets, polished by the feet of thousands who were now completely absent, was surreal. I highly recommend waking up extra early in a normally busy city and taking a stroll; you end up seeing and appreciating completely new things.

And Paris is pretty empty early in the morning, too. Check out the 1976 Claude Lelouch 8.5-minute vehicle(!), &quot;C&#x27;était un Rendezvous&quot; (&quot;It was a date&quot;). Classic!<p><a href="http://www.streetfire.net/video/ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude-lelouchflv_2064708.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.streetfire.net&#x2F;video&#x2F;ctait-un-rendez-vous-claude-...</a> or other similar.

I&#x27;m using linux. This site&#x27;s scroll behaviour is infuriating.

What a surprisingly pleasant side-scrolling experience.

If you liked this, you should also check out this beautiful timelapse video of Milan (same concept): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=EyHsouXc_HU</a>

I&#x27;ve previously done this kind of thing with an ND filter and long exposures to save getting frustrated by occasional passers-by.<p>Here&#x27;s a series of photographs of major cities around the world done using this technique by Lucie &amp; Simon:<p><a href="http://petapixel.com/2012/03/28/post-apocalyptic-photographs-of-major-cities-around-the-world/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;petapixel.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;03&#x2F;28&#x2F;post-apocalyptic-photographs...</a> <a href="http://www.lucieandsimon.com/works/silent_world" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lucieandsimon.com&#x2F;works&#x2F;silent_world</a>

The square mile looks like that on a weekend.<p>The rest looks like that at 05:30. in summer.

In Israel, there is one day a year [1] where the streets actually look like this [2].<p>(Granted, most of the time you will see plenty of people walking around the streets, or children riding bicycles.)<p>[1] - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israel" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Yom_Kippur#Observance_in_Israe...</a><p>[2] - <a href="http://www.demotix.com/photo/862508/tel-aviv-streets-empty-yom-kippur" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.demotix.com&#x2F;photo&#x2F;862508&#x2F;tel-aviv-streets-empty-y...</a>

Nice work! And to prove they are not phony, time for a game of &#x27;I Spy&#x27;! ISWMLE: a cyclist a trash collector possibly a policeman several lit car tail lights<p>Advances?

I live near quite a few of these. The way to experience this is by being there very early on a Sunday morning or a Bank Holiday. Let me tell you there are few things as eerie as riding a bicycle around Central London and not seeing a single soul. Of course it&#x27;s not totally deserted, you&#x27;ll see the odd vehicle especially on the main roads, but there are definitely moments where it feels like being in 28 Days Later.

Reminds me of the opening scene of Vanilla Sky where Tom Cruise is running through downtown Manhattan alone --<p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=6DIsa_SLifQ</a><p>I always think it&#x27;s cool when we&#x27;re able to capture this sort of rare feat on film, in this case emptying out Times Square for a few brief moments

Nices photos, horrible website usability.

Those photos are great! I&#x27;ve been taking some night shots of street art in London, and because of the long exposure the streets often appear to be empty. You can see some of my photos here: <a href="http://advers.com/gallery" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;advers.com&#x2F;gallery</a>

You don&#x27;t even have to get up to experience this - just head into the City of London[1] on a weekend, especially a Sunday. Most of the streets are empty.<p>[1]: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;City_of_London</a>

Gorgeous, but they look more like early morning shots than abandoned city shots. Give me broad daylight or with all the lights off and it&#x27;ll really feel atmospheric. The extreme saturation also doesn&#x27;t contribute to a feeling of desertion.<p>Also, abandoned London is spotless.

This is the London I remember from early morning July 8th, 2005, the morning after the bombings. Was walking around to find a ride to the airport, couple of blocks from the double-decker wreck. Wish not to experience the same again.

That&#x27;s awesome work! Strangely I cannot believe that a place like Piccadilly Circus is ever empty. It feels so unreal. He must have: a) waited a lot to see the streets clear b) been quite lucky the streets eventually cleared.

Very interesting (and beautiful I might say, seeing the empty streets awaken some beautiful memories), but that&#x27;s not how London would look like if everyone left. Not even close. Maybe only for the first couple of days.

This is really cool, I&#x27;ve never been to London so I have no reference for how busy the places he photographs typically are. I would love to see a similar project for NYC.

I also enjoyed this collection of &quot;empty&quot; photos of all 270 tube stations:<p><a href="http://instagram.com/tube270" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;instagram.com&#x2F;tube270</a>

<i>28 Weeks Later</i> also takes place in an abandoned London.

Nice photos but it also highlights how claustrophobic London is. I live here and don&#x27;t like how you can never be really alone outside of your own home.

A similar experiment was done in Paris a few weeks ago: <a href="http://vimeo.com/74857458" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;vimeo.com&#x2F;74857458</a>

For Americans who want to replicate this, Thanksgiving day around 2 - 3pm is also similarly eerily quiet and a great chance to get a shot like this.

Anyone else notice that the second-to-last photo has 4 or 5 people in the scene, as well as a moving car? Otherwise, well done!

I recommend a photo album &quot;Tokyo Nobody&quot; - similar concept.

The people who left forgot to turn off the lights.

Wow those photos stunning...and thought provoking.

beautiful