London’s air often appears clear. The sky reads as blue, the horizon sharp against glass and concrete. Yet particulate matter and other residues of transport and energy persist within this apparent transparency. Contemporary pollution is diffuse. It rarely announces itself.
The sky is one of the few atmospheric surfaces that remains constantly available to view. Its colour and clarity shift with solar angle, humidity and suspended particles. What appears natural is materially contingent.
Sky Observation was conducted during the winter months of 2025 from a fixed vantage point in my garden. The project returns to the same frame tracing gradual modulation: a softened horizon, a thinned blue, brightness diffused through damp air. Through repetition, subtle variation becomes visible.
Although the work begins from stillness, it occasionally extends into the surrounding streets. Wind, traffic and distant sirens prompt brief departures from the original viewpoint. These photographs register rooftops, façades and infrastructure, placing the sky within the systems that shape it.
The work does not isolate pollution as an object. Instead it considers how polluted air inscribes itself across the visible field. The sky and its urban edges become indices of atmospheric change.
