A tribute to Edward Hopper. The colour of the brickwork is reminiscent of that in 'Early Sunday Morning'. The two people, barely visible, provide a sense of the loneliness of life in the city.New YorkThe sun never realised how wonderful it was until it fell onto the side of a building: ParisThe simple , elegant beauty of Japanese architecture. Straight lines and a fusion of light, air and structure, here with the perfect compliment of a man in a lilac suit at the Gallery of the Horyuji Treasures : TokyoWalking to the match. A 'Blades' supporter and an abandoned engineering works : SheffieldThe swagger, the red hoodie, the dilapidated building and a world beating event proclaimed in a typically Mancunian way : ManchesterWalking away. Photographed through the plastic sheeting of an al fresco restaurant, the image takes on the appearance of the dark shadowing of a 15th century painting : BolognaWalking alone along a narrow passageway one discovers the hidden beauty of a Roman church: RomeThe first rays of daylight illuminate 3 windows in a faceless building on a deserted street making one question whether anyone is there : Turin'Forza Napoli' and a sky blue blanket: NapoliThat rare thing ; a single person in the turbine hall at Tate Modern : LondonShibuya style: TokyoSouvenir. The hoops of pastel colours, on a rare, run down building in the Old Town, provide the softest of backgrounds, against which the severity of the black shadows and the silhouette of a behatted man threaten to overwhelm: RovinjOn a sun lit Shoreditch morning it is apparent that sometimes we are distracted by the unimportant from recognising the wonders being offered to us: LondonAn inconspicuous but deeply affecting memorial on Grosse Hamburgerstrasse to the Jews who were transported from the city : BerlinWalking down 5th Avenue in July: New York CityThe plaque of the Bulgarian Embassy separates 2 men and a face : RomeGraffiti scars the splendour of the columns of the Piazza del Plebiscito, but the declaration of love , " Anna vita mia", is uplifting : Naplesif Dali' had designed a roof space. The shadows of early evening provide a severe contrast to the lightened terracotta as irregular and alien faces arise from La Pedrera's shapes whilst the silhouette of a lone visitor completes the picture: BarcelonaA stark conflict between the comical image of half a cow protruding from a building with the stern face off the jogger: EdinburghRemembering David Slud, aged 20. No photograph can ever capture the unfathomable happenings of Auschwitz: Krakow'Forza Napoli'. Un ragazzo sits waiting in Forcella watched by Puncinello: NaplesWith the slight resemblance to Giorgio de Chirico's painting, 'The Enigma of a Day', this image holds the enhancing sunlight of a Spanish morning together with the sinister, shocked-looking windows and an injured citizen in the darkest of shadows: MalagaDuring a summer rain storm a man with an umbrella stands alone on the Ponte Santa Trinita which crosses the River Arno whilst a swallow flies overhead: FlorenceOne has to search for the darker corners of the island away from the tourists , but it usually pays out on the effort one invests: VeniceThat the Berliner Dom survived the war and the subsequent occupation in the divided city is remarkable. That it stands so proudly when competing with the recent renovation of the former east speaks to its architectural splendour : BerlinIt shouldn't work. A gigantic, orange, abstract, metal shape occupies the stage in one of the city's central plazas. Yet'The Flamingo' has been accepted as the leading piece of contemporary sculpture in America's second city: ChicagoAlone amidst the black and white stripes in Shinjuku: TokyoThe hoarding in place for the alteration of the old Battersea Power Station lends an Alice in Wonderland-type impression to this image: LondonA large piece of plastic sculpture somehow works in the vast atrium of the Reina Sofia Museum: Madrid" Vote or die" - graffiti with a message: New York City2 people crossing 12th Avenue in a bright, sunlit autumn morning, seen from the Highline: New York citySimple, angular sections of block colours seek to capture the modern, cultural aspect of Germany's second city: HamburgThe darkness of the carrugi in the old town, where space is tightened and compressed, maintains at all times: GenoaSearching for the ever lost : VeniceA true sense of the city is gained at 06.00, should one stroll through the portici which run parallel to the Arno as one travels towards the Uffizi: FlorenceA cyclist crossing at Shibuya. The mutual respect, calm and order which is necessary for a supercity to function is evident in that despite the apparently frenetic pace of Tokyo life, the distances between the cars are evenly spaced: Tokyo'Don't shoot'. Graffiti in the constantly changing area of Shoreditch where it seems everyone remains young: LondonThe world renowned architect, Zaha Hadid, designed 4 unique funicular stations to transport people from the city to the heights of the nearby mountain range. The final station is Hungerburg where the sunlight supplies a giant tick by way of acknowledgement of the wonder of the architect's work: InnsbruckThankfully one is now free to cross over Bernauerstrasse. The crucifix reminds us of how easily the freedom to take those routine steps can be removed: BerlinDon't follow the crowd! Washington Square Park on a Sunday afternoon: New York cityIn El Born there is a passageway which, at its entrance, has a heavy metal gate. This doorway is only ever partially opened. Beyond it is a hallway, decorated for the most part in French blue. There is a staircase of 7 steps leading to a locked door. The hallway is lit by a single pendant light which introduces a patina to the adjacent walls, otherwise hidden amidst the darkness, enhancing their age and beauty and enticing the passer-by: BarcelonaThe empty chairs of Ghetto Heroes Square remind us that the people who ought to be here are not: KrakowSunlight is arriving, partially illuminating Calle Panaderos, as two runners are identified amidst the tight shadowing of a late May morning: Malaga2 Skateboarders standing at the war memorial in Battery Park: New York CityPalermo is a city which highlights the conflict between light and shade at its best. Here two figures are enveloped within the shadows at the Quattro Canti: Palermo.Within the Tuillerie Gardens the sunlight of a December morning shines through the leafless tress as a jogger runs towards the Louvre: Paris4 joggers bring colour to the heavy greyness as a storm approaches over the Rio Tejo: LisbonThe surreal exterior of artificial red poppies and vibrant green grass of the Zaha Hadid designed MAXXI museum : RomeThough surrounded by the beauty of the pale yellow limestone interspersed with vibrantly coloured balconies, a mobile phone remains more interesting: VallettaIn 1977 an East German guard stands sentinel on Unter Den Linden: East Berlin
Simon Allen is a street photographer, having traveled to New York, Rome, London, Manchester, Bologna, Naples and Melbourne, amongst many other major world cities, representing the real wonder of the urban environment through his photography.