Super Wide City is an ongoing photographic project documenting London’s evolving skyline over nearly two decades.

Working from elevated viewpoints across the capital, James Bell records the city at a scale that shows architecture, infrastructure, light and atmosphere in relationship rather than isolation. The panoramic format is central to the work, offering a continuous field of vision that reflects how London is experienced: expansive, layered and in constant motion.

The project spans periods of economic change, redevelopment and architectural ambition, capturing moments when the city briefly resolves into clarity before shifting again. These images serve as contemporary documents and as a visual record of a city undergoing sustained transformation.

Super Wide City explores London not as a fixed landmark, but as a living structure — shaped by time, density and perspective.

EAST LONDON

This sequence focuses on East London, an area that has undergone some of the city's most rapid architectural change.

Photographed from elevated vantage points, the images examine proximity, density and scale, where new structures sit in close and often compressed relationship to existing neighbourhoods, workplaces and living spaces. Reflections, layered surfaces and restricted sightlines are used to emphasise how development reshapes not only the skyline but the experience of space itself.

Captured at moments when light, structure and form briefly align, the photographs describe East London as it is encountered now — intensified, reconfigured, and continually evolving.

Transition of the London skyline 2008-2018