Dark Noon: trailer // London Undeground and effect of dark tunnels on one's perception

June 3, 2011

Dark noon // trailer from Veronika Lukasova on Vimeo.

What started as photographing Paul Coughlan’s day in life, turned to a different story. First I shot London Underground train driver  Paul couching boxers in Kings Cross Amateur Boxing Club “Times”. But what became exceedingly more fascinating was the exploration of a roaming mind and effect of the dark tunnels on one’s perception. Paul has been  a Northern Line metro train driver for 13 years. The major metro artery connects North and South London in 50 stations out of which 36 are underground. Extended darkness can result in sensory deprivation and has been used as a form of torture. In the contrast banishing the dark from our lives has a powerful effect and continuous light has long been used as a method of torture as well. Riding in the tight circular tunnels laced with sprawling cables has a a stop frame effect. Darkness  of the tunnels is punctuated by blinding brightness of the stations, lit with fluorescent greenish light. Paul got used to the work in this subterranean environment, for him, the ride on a tube is a completely different experience that for any of us in the passenger carriage, reading papers and listening to music.

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Written by Veronika Lukasova Posted in Documentary, UK, YOU Tagged with darkness, light deprivation, London, Nothern Line, Paul Coughlan, Veronika Lukasova