P&P-Part 3; Exercise 1; Exploring function

Exercise; Exploring function

 

On doing these exercises for this module, I realise that everything is getting just that little bit harder to do, which is to be expected. I had to really think about which building to choose for this particular exercise and, well, for all of them really, it was a tough decision and in the end I chose to photograph the Natural History Museum.

 

I had to choose a building which focused on how the building is intended to be used and whether or not its design is successful and then translate this thought process in to an image.

First I have to note what I think the space ought to be doing, then consider how well I think it succeeds.

Looking in to the history of the museum on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_History_Museum,_London It was purposefully built as a museum, which I think it succeeds successfully and could not really be used as anything else, I have heard of old museums being converted in to housing, however, this is very rare.

The design of the building works well with the intension of its purpose. If I were to have any thoughts on what the space ought to be doing, it could possibly be a mansion for a very rich person, although, there would have to be a lot of work done, you would have to leave the main entrance as it was and convert the upstairs galleries and the ones below in to functional living spaces.

The function of the museum as it is now works well. The grandeur of it envelopes you as you enter and you can easily see the directional flow of the building. The only parts of the museum that I think would need to be changed were the back areas (the new areas) I got a bit lost and the flow does not work as well, which is strange in a away as you would have thought it would have worked better, due to modern technology. I suppose it depends on the person/persons who designed it and their vision, but I think it does not fit well within the beautiful architecture of the rest of the building.

 

I have to produce one image that represents the space in order to put across the way that it works and on reflection, I decided to photograph the building in the way in which it works currently, as a museum.

0.5 seconds at f/14.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM

For this shot I used my wide angle lens, so to depict the grandeur and enormity of the building, I wanted to include a lot of people in the shot to get a good sense of scale and I kept the aperture as high as I could, to get everything in focus and at the same time let enough light in to get a good image, I also wanted the motion blur in the image to show the directionality of the people using the space.
I think this image is a good representation of how the function of the building is used by people.