Proving that stations are more than just places to wait, photographer Chris Forsyth has documented the colourful, cavernous surroundings of Stockholm’s underground system.

Forsyth took a graphic approach, training his lens on the bright shapes and architectural flourishes that distinguish each station, from the oversized fern stencils of T-Centralen to the giant sunset-tinted hand of Stadion.

‘Stockholm’s Tunnelbana system is aesthetically like no other system around,’ says Forsyth. ‘It’s often regarded as the world’s longest art gallery because many of its stations have been completely hand-painted. They’re truly a treat for the senses.’

His images draw attention to the cave-like nature of the city’s metro, emphasised by the stations’ large-scale murals. The expansive rocky interior of Solna Centrum is accentuated by a huge black-and-red wall painting, which dates back to 1975.

Forsyth adds: ‘Due to the stations being so dimly lit in person, to do justice to the senses I really had to overexpose the available light to bring back the vibrancy of the art. Using a wide angle lens helped to recreate the awe-inspiring feeling of actually being down there in the stations.’

Stockholm is the latest in a series of cities captured by Forsyth as part of an ongoing Metro series, which has also seen him photograph Montreal, Munich and Berlin.

During an intensive 14-day journey through the four locations, he spent over 100 hours photographing stations in an attempt to challenge perceptions of  subway environments.

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