Underworld

By Yusuf Özkızıl

13 Apr 2008

About a year ago, perhaps slightly longer, I gave up my habit of reading on the tube. I can't pin-point the precise day, or why this came to be, but somewhere along the line the habit of flicking through one of the many leftover newspapers lost it's appeal. Even a riveting novel I'd been following at home would seldom leave the bag I'd packed it in. I suppose one day I realised that the seat I was in, was more like that inside a theatre, and I increasingly became drawn into the stories of the passengers in front of me. Like players on the stage, riders of the London Underground, represent every age, and nation on the planet. I became fascinated by the rituals they would lock themselves into once they'd hit their seat. Some would make do with their private thoughts, whilst others came more prepared with books, music, or a challenging puzzle to complete. I started packing my compact camera on tube trips, like some hunter on safari, I didn't want to startle the wildlife with a conspicuously huge SLR. Chancing upon the unexpected has turned this from an occasional habit into something of an ongoing project.

From the stylishly hatted commuter complementing his surroundings, to the unlikely game of snap two men of identical shirts and matching bellies played, to the water bottle that drifted into shot when framing an unlikely dressed boy attracting attention from his neighbours... I present some of my favourites from my time down in the "underworld".