Simon Wheatley: Silverlink

'Between 1998 and 2010 I photographed a train line that ran across London’s northern inner-suburbs. Initially intrigued by the social polarisation of neighbourhoods along the line, the story became a meandering one with seemingly no end - until the Kodachrome film with which I shot it was discontinued. The work has emerged from my archives as a reflection of the emptiness of the Blair years, and a tacit indictment of rail privatisation: The Railways Act of 1993 was the last significant act of the Tory administrations which preceded him, and Labour failed to fulfil their promise to repeal it. The book is also a celebration of those who knew Silverlink. It ends with an essay written by Panik, a graffiti artist, whose ATG crew were well known on the line. His standing as the son of a senior member of the train workers union gives his perceptive and deeply personal analysis of the changing London we witnessed added poignancy.'