In the winter of 1958, Sergio Larrain traveled to London. He spent just a few months there, photographing subjects that interested him and embracing the shadows of the city. In the cold and damp, his images captured a tangible darkness in which he could "materialize that world of phantoms." A few years later, he joined Magnum Photos and set off around the world, before retiring to the Chilean countryside and leaving photography behind.

The book also features a text by the late Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño--written in 1999 specifically to accompany these images--as well as a new essay by Agnès Sire, artistic director of Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson, detailing Larrain's stay in London.