British Brutalism and the Characters of a UK Bus Station in Photos

By Alison Nastasi

Jan. 3, 2016

Inspired by the parade of people traveling through the Preston Bus Station in Lancashire, North West England — the building is an icon of Brutalist architecture — British photographer Jamie Hawkesworth captured the faces of passersby that spoke to him.

“I just waited for someone to catch my eye,” he told Ignant. “When I photographed them though, I never really liked talking to them for that long, not because I’m not interested but it started to get a bit strange. Most of the time people just want to get on with what they’re doing rather than chatting to a weirdo who wants to take their picture.”

There’s something about each subject, a character in their own way, suspended in time, that Hawkesworth has uncovered — the temporal life breathed into this stark monument. Hawkesworth’s photos have been collected in a new monograph, which we preview in our gallery.

Photo credit: Jamie Hawkesworth