London In Puddles: Magical Photographs Taken In Rain Puddles

Several months ago, I wrote about some photos that were taken through puddles. It is a unique photography perspective that will twist your mind into a pretzel. Before I saw those pictures, I never realized what magic could be found in the simple reflection of a rain puddle. When my dear friend Nini Baseema, who many of you know from Twitter, told me about the puddle photography of Gavin Hammond, I knew I had to share it with you.

Gavin takes this puddle photography to a whole new level by taking the pictures with a Lomo camera. The effects of this photography are truly stunning. When you look at the pictures, you’ll see what I mean. I asked Nini to introduce this artist and his unique style to you.

From the desk of Nini Baseema...

Musician and Producer Gavin Hammond has many talents. One of them is to crawl around on his hometown’s streets whenever it pours in order to shoot pictures for his magnificent “London in Puddles” series. Taken with a Lomo through water puddles, he offers an as unique as atmospheric and romantic glimpse of the traditional tourist destinations such as Trafalgar Square, the London Eye and Buckingham Palace.

For those of you who don’t know, a Lomo is a small Russian toy camera. It was originally invented during the cold war for taking spy pictures. In recent years, it has become sort of a “cult” to shoot with this analog camera. Gavin Hammond; however, says about himself that he is a rather atypical Lomo photographer. And, looking at his works, we find it hard to believe that they were taken with a spy cam!

What began as a project for his band, Sweet Tooth, has taken off and evolved into much more. What Gavin loves about photography is that it’s so instant and immediate. “I find photography to be a wonderful release from all the technical deliberation I encounter as a music producer. I click, I shoot, and it’s done. No editing, no Photoshopping, no tweaking – just the honest truth. Sometimes we get so caught up in the technology of it all that we forget the camera in our hands is the most magical tool of all. We just need to get out and use it.”

You can learn more about Gavin on Gavin Hammond, and you can learn more about Nini Baseema on The Form of Beauty.