There are not many London landmarks that I have missed since I moved into the city, and yet, somehow, I've missed Battersea Power Station. For those who do not know, this used to be a coal-fired power station, well, two actually. The first one was created in the 1930s and the second one was finished in the 1950s. Both of them were created using a similar plan, which accounts for the structural unity of the power station. The original design was inspired by what can be a nice combination between brickwork of an almost brutalist nature and art deco. The four chimneys had been firing up since then until the 1980s when the power station was decomissioned. Then it was recognized by English Heritage as a Grade II* Listed Building, which means that it has important historical value. I mean, it really does, this was the place the supplied light to the city for the better of 50 years! And the design of this functional place is actually quite beautiful! Still, it fell into disrepair for a while until it was finally redeveloped and turned into a public space with a leisure centre, a shopping centre, and lots of private apartments [whic are ridiculously expensive, by the way! Yes, I checked!]. If you want to learn more about this, you can always go to the wikipedia page of Battersea Power Station.
If you wonder why I have a nightshot of the place, that's because what interested me the most about it was the Festival of Lights that they have orgasined. I really am a sucker for pretty lights! LOL!
I've been trying to see this lightshow for the past two years, and somehow, I've always missed it! But this year I took my camera and my partner and we headed there on a Sunday evening, right after the sun went down.
First impression, wow! the power station is impressive! Much more so than the light show, but only because the station is so big and it dwarfs everything next to it, including the lights. The light art installations were around the power station and inside, so we took our time to really look around and take everything in. Lots of people were out and about doing the same thing.
Apparently, this is now a place to go to! A shiny new/old destination with things like shops, cinemas, restaurants, an interactive wine bar (actually, a serve yourself your own drinks bar!), etc. But I digress...back to the lights and the views! These were really phenomenal.
I took the liberty of getting a copy of the map of the area with the information about where the light art installations are and the name of the pieces.
Below you will see my photos of how these pieces look like in situ. I used my mirrorless camera, a Nikon Z6, 24-70mm, f.4, to shoot the photos below. Because of the low light conditions, I decided to shoot on Aperture Priority, which means that my ISO was really high, which in turn means that my photos look very grainy, some may even say noisy. I have zero issues with this. I also had a bit of a play with the processing of these: some are in colour and others in black and white...and there is one that has both (that's what masks are for, I guess). This is my sandbox, and I love to experiment with my processing in Adobe Lightroom. Anyway, there will be no more winded text from me. You can check the photos for each light art installation below. Be aware that if there is an arrow on the right of the photo, it means that there is a slide show [and the best way to see it, and honestly to see all the photos, is to click on the images themselves!]. Also, there is a little video at the end with a 365º view from point 2.
1. Badstop
2. Eternal Sundown
3. Moonburn
4. My Light is your light
5. Rotifers
6. End over end
7. Neighbourhood
8. Strangers in the Night
365º Video of Battersea Power Station from point 2.
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