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July 24, 2014
Although street photographers have been trying to capture the mood of the daily commute for many years making pictures of urban commuters are hard to do. You have to be stealthy. Walker Evans, for instance, used a camera hidden in his coat to surreptitiously photograph people on the New York City subway in the 1938.
Along with Walker Evans, Bruce Davidson, Nobuyoshi Araki, Luc Delahaye, Christophe Agou and numerous others have produced important bodies of work from subway systems around the world. And many other photographers, from William Eggelston and William Klein to Helen Levitt and Saul Leiter, have drifted beneath the surface at one time or another to capture telling images.
The London commuters photographed below by Arnau Oriol were on the rail line that links the north and east London suburbs to the financial heart of the city. The commuters were photographed early morning, presumably on their way to work. They are photographed from a train platform as the train passes through over a six month period.
Arnau Oriol London woman commuter
The pictures are of commuters on the overground train as the windows offer a view to the city and a space for them to reflect, think and dream:
Arnau Oriol London woman commuter
Photographing from outside the window as the train passes by, the commuters are unable to anticipate the photographer's presence or react when he takes the picture, thereby allowing Oriol to capture the commuter's state of introspection and distant thought.
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Robert Frank did a series on New York commuters after publishing The Americans.