For over 20 years as a photographer I have commuted into central London by car, experiencing a rush hour of anonymous, expressionless drivers hidden in their mobile steel boxes with no interaction other than through beeps of horns and the flashing of headlights. More recently I’ve been leaving my car at home and have joined the bankers and the builders, the day trippers and the tourists on the London Underground for a quicker, less stressful journey into work.

Jubilee line: racegoers on their way to Royal Ascot

The District line

Canary Wharf station

Suddenly I became aware of a new world of phone-obsessed, sleep-deprived, makeup-wielding commuters so absorbed in their own world that I felt I had to photograph them. I’m astonished by the skill of the women who are able to apply their makeup while hurtling through tunnels and those who can watch last night’s TV standing up in the smallest of spaces.

The Circle line

The Docklands Light Railway (left); the Jubilee line

The Bakerloo line

The Metropolitan line

The first few trains of the morning are full and almost impossible to get on. They are builders and office cleaners, most dressed in jeans and hoodies and usually asleep. There’s then a brief lull before the bankers and office workers in their expensive suits and iPad-downloaded newspapers force themselves into overcrowded trains.

Victoria station

The District line (left); the Jubilee line

The District line

The Central line

Each line has its own unique character. The routes I use include the Jubilee line which has the financial workers of Canary Wharf, the District line which has politicians and tourists going to Westminster, and the Central line which has bankers and shop workers on their way to Oxford Street. After 9.30am the third rush-hour of the morning begins and the trains are filled with day trippers and sightseeing tourists visiting the capital’s attractions, and the mood relaxes.

The District line

The District line

The Jubilee line

Photographing in such confined spaces brings its own challenges. It’s difficult not to be noticed and I’ve found Londoners to be a very shy species. If I’m seen raising my camera, in the blink of a shutter the subject usually turns away and the moment is gone. More often, though, they are so lost in their own worlds that not many ever spot me and I’m able to capture the faces of the capital’s travellers, always in black and white so the bright colours of the train interiors don’t distract from the highly expressive faces around me.