Edward Miller. No 9 Bus, Fleet Street in Heavy Smog, London, 1952
Photo Credit: Edward Miller/Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

While preparing for our Fine Art Photography Course, looking for photos from the Straight Photography and Pictorialist movements, I stumbled upon an article about the Great London ‘Pea-Souper’ Fog of 1952 on Flashbak.com, where this compelling photograph by Edward Miller caught my attention. It features a London bus shrouded in the heavy smog of December 6, 1952 making its way on Fleet Street.

Although Miller typically captured everyday moments with sharp, crisp detail, this image adopts a softer, more painterly feel, reminiscent of the scratched negatives and soft-focus photogravures of the Pictorialist movement. The double-decker bus, silhouetted against the eerie glow of a streetlamp cutting through the gloom, and a barely visible solitary figure on the pavement, add to the scene’s mystery. It almost looks like a charcoal drawing which was typical of the poetic Pictorialist style.

The day the photograph was taken, London’s smog had caused widespread disruption, throwing the city’s rhythm into disarray. The smog was a byproduct of several factors: cold, stagnant air trapped beneath a warm upper layer, mixed with smoke from domestic coal fires and emissions from the city’s four main power stations. Its density made the city almost invisible, infiltrating buildings and altering the course of daily life.

To read more about this infamous day and to view additional photographs, visit Flashbak’s article by following this link: https://flashbak.com/the-great-london-pea-souper-fog-of-1952-45579/?

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