Sophie's and Paul's world

A week ago I was in Canary Wharf scouting for locations for Sophie and Paul's flat and the surrounding area, in Part 1. These are from the area to the east of Canary Wharf itself, East India Dock.
I tried to capture the sense of the place, but I don't think I was successful.
What is exciting about the place is a particular building, which can feel powerful and muscular, even if it is not of great architectural value. But these are these are the same qualities that make impossible for any localness to take root. There will never be anything here that will be particular to that place. You would not remember living in a place like this.



























I struggled to find compositions that could represent some of these places. It was difficult. Although you may find a building that seems impressive on one level, with scale, and materials, glass, there was so much else in the foreground that was disconnected and of a different scale or material or colour. It really is quite a mess.
I made my way further east towards East India Dock, and a complex of hi-rise buildings I know.
































This is the kind of place I imagine Sophie and Paul in Part 1. Why? What is that attracts me to this place? Does this make sense for Paul, and especially Sophie? It is not typical of London or Europe, more of the kind of place you find in North America.





















There are some practical reasons. I always imagined Sophie living in a high-rise, and the image of her looking down, and out about into the world. She had a view of Canary Wharf, that seemed important. So I began to write scenes that involved a high-rise. But these are post-rationalised so to speak. What attracted me to their area in the first place?
I think for the same reason that it is so difficult to photograph: there doesn't seem to be any place to start. You can't tell when you have arrived or depart. There is no there there, as Jane Jacob put it. So, for Sophie, this is the perfect place for her to begin to think that every possible life we might lead is of equal value. Or even this belief was an outcome from living in such a place?
For Paul it might be that this place is a way-station for their relationship. You unconsciously know that you are uncertain where the relationship will go, so you stop here, and make a plan. They would need to move elsewhere if their relationship was to become an entity, a we. Or they go their separate ways.