What We Leave Behind
Shoreditch has a way of collecting stories and not always in neat chapters, but more like a scatter of footnotes scrawled across alley walls, old signage, and in this case, a power line strung with what must be a dozen forgotten pairs of shoes.
I took this photo on a grey afternoon, the kind where the sky feels heavy but not quite ready to break. The shoes caught me off guard not because I’d never seen shoes dangling above a street before (London’s got plenty of those), but because of how many there were. A jumbled, swinging collection of boots, trainers, and something that looked suspiciously like a rugby shirt caught in the middle of them. It didn’t seem staged. It felt… accidental. Or maybe ritualistic in the way urban myths sometimes are.
Shot on my Fuji X100F using the Acros simulation with some of my own tweaks, I leaned into contrast and grit. I wanted the texture of the rubber soles and worn leather to speak, not just visually, but tonally. There’s a tension here: gravity pulling down, laces tying up, and history just hanging on. Black and white made sense. Colour would’ve softened it, maybe even distracted from the geometry of it all.
Technically, it was a quick shot and no time for perfection, just instinct. I exposed for the highlights in the clouds and let the shadows in the buildings fall off naturally. There’s something beautiful about letting a scene breathe as it is, without overworking it.
I don’t know who left these shoes behind or why. Maybe it was just a group of mates messing around. Maybe it meant something to someone. Either way, it made me stop, made me wonder. And in a place as photographed as Shoreditch, that alone felt like reason enough to raise the camera.
Sometimes street photography isn’t about answers. It’s about observations that don’t need resolving. Scenes like this are less about narrative and more about noticing. The kind of images that invite you to look twice and ask your own questions.
—
Shot on location in Shoreditch, London. Street photography captured with the Fuji X100F using custom Acros settings.
Want to see more moments like this? Check out the rest of the blog or follow along on Instagram @davidkearley for regular updates.