‘Summer is over’. Deserted bandstand, Battersea Park, London, October 2014.   (Nikon D800, 38mm, 1/125s, f4, ISO-200)

The bandstand, Battersea Park, at the end of the summer season looking forlorn and deserted as the early autumn leaves start to fall.

The image was taken during a family walk on a mild autumn Sunday afternoon in a quiet and relatively deserted Battersea Park. The autumn leaves were falling, the cafes were shut and everything was starting to look desolate. Yet the bunting was still up decorating the bandstand as a sad reminder of the summer festivities.

I decided with this image to keep the red, white and blue colours of the bunting, as a reminder of the summer gone, and also to help emphasise the desolation of the empty bandstand, surrounded by the empty benches. I also deliberately kept the image quite dark and moody at the edges, to further emphasise the impending gloom of winter.

I feel that this image works quite well, as it tells the story of itself quite simply. Long gone are the happy crowds eating their ice creams whilst watching the band concert, summer is over and the leaves are falling, leaving the cold metal ironwork to stand lonely and desolate in solitude throughout the gloom of the impending winter.