Escalator Idol

Stations are a strange kind of hinterland, neither here nor there, transitionary places...

The lighting is normally very clear, but to a camera's eye, it often turns artificial lighting weird colours such as this deep orangey overtone. As I took the shot it seemed like a normal, even rather cold, white light. Fluorescent lighting can turn slots an eerie shade of green, to take another example.

If you realise this you can use it to your advantage by compensating for it or indeed accentuating the effect. I like my subterranean shots to have this warm cocooned atmosphere so I don't normally tell the camera to compensate, but for an inside portrait where you do want natural skin tones, for example, you would probably change the colour 'warmth' on the camera.

Stations are often very mechanical, dehumanised places, with industrial structures, lots of straight lines and not much to make you feel cosy and warm. So when you do see something that, logically, just shouldn't be there, it's an interesting sensation and hats off to those who allowed me to imagine this shot!