Footfall on the London Underground fell to just 13% of pre-pandemic levels during the third national lockdown, with passengers urged to avoid all but essential travel.
For those who rely on the service for work, like photographer Aaron Parsons, that sometimes meant travelling from station to station without seeing a single person.
"Travelling to recent shoots on the tube opened my eyes to a new world and one I might not ever see again", Parsons told us. "A place that is normally bursting at the seams is currently a ghostly, subterranean domain".
This dystopian atmosphere gave rise to the photographer's most recent project, London's Lonely Lockdown — a series of images that capture the eeriness of the vast subterranean network during the depths of winter.
Parsons cited Blade Runner and Mad Max when describing the (temporary) desolation of tube network, but images like the one below are giving us more Kubrickian vibes — this tunnel could almost be the inside of Discovery One from 2001: A Space Odyssey.
We've popped a few more of our favourites below, but you can explore the series in full via Aaron's website.
London's Lonely Lockdown by Aaron Parsons. Explore the full series here, or follow Aaron on Instagram.
All images © Aaron Parsons Photography.
