Mountains in London - a lockdown photography project

In March 2020, London emptied almost overnight. The streets I'd spent years photographing — Carnaby Street, Broadgate, the Southbank — suddenly had almost nobody in them. It was eerie and beautiful at the same time.

I'd always loved cities that sit inside landscapes. Skopje, Sofia, Los Angeles — places where you can look up and see mountains framing the skyline. London has never had that. But standing in a quiet corner of Broadgate one April morning, looking through the station arches at the buildings rising behind, I found myself wondering: what if it did?

I went home and found a mountain on Unsplash. The cliff face dropped straight into the City. It looked completely wrong and completely right at the same time.

That became the project. Over the following weeks I combed through my lockdown archive — long walks on empty streets, golden hour light with nobody in it — and started pairing London locations with mountains from my travels and from Unsplash. Carnaby Street with the ski slopes of Andorra. St Paul's at golden hour with the mountains of Innsbruck. Tower Bridge with an alpine ridge.

The rule I set myself: the light had to match. No cheating with heavily edited mountain shots. The join had to feel almost plausible.

I still think about this project a lot. London is a city that rewards looking carefully — there's always something happening in the background, always a frame within a frame. Lockdown just made that more visible because everything else was stripped away. It reminded me why I photograph here.

Browse the full series below.

If you're curious about my wider London photography work — portraits, couples, or tourist sessions across the city — you can find it all at tepewehco.com.