Assignment Three; Buildings
in use
Object of assignment three
For this assignment I have to choose five or six
buildings and produce between two and four images that describe effectively and
attractively the way in which these spaces are used.
Three out of the five images used to illustrate this
section have no people in them, but the use of space by people is evident.
For each building, it is important that I conduct some
research beforehand, either archival or personal (or both), so that I have;
·
a good understanding of how and why it was
designed in the way it is
·
an opinion on its effectiveness as a usable
space
I have to encompass variety in my choice of buildings,
including size and purpose.
I decided to choose five buildings for this assignment
and included the maximum amount of images for each of those buildings. It was a
difficult decision as to which buildings to choose because I wanted a clear separation
between each one. I did a lot of research beforehand (as the notes suggest) to
be able to conclude which ones I wanted to use, I decided on the following five
buildings;
·
an abandoned jam factory
·
the Shard
·
a cottage
·
borough market
·
the O2
These buildings all have very different functions and there
is beauty within them, in their own way.
Buildings in use
I
came across this photographer through a friend of mine who sent me the link to
an article. His name is Dan Marbaix
and he photographs abandoned buildings when he travels across Europe and
America. As the article states, he has been arrested about 20 times for
trespassing which makes it a bit of a dangerous past time, not to mention that
the buildings are derelict for a reason and pieces could possibly fall down and
injure him. On looking at his images, they really inspired me to look in to
this further which is why I wanted to include an abandoned building in this
assignment. I also feel when viewing his photographs that unsettling feeling
that I got when exploring the abandoned building for this assignment, it really
speaks to me and I think his images are beautiful.
(Photograph by Dan Marbaix)
I think this is my favourite, due to the composition and
the way it feels is as though the owners left in a hurry and did not want their
belongings anymore.
Another
photographer who I feel is worth a mention is Richard Pare, he is English born and he achieved a Master of Fine
Arts in Chicago in 1973. He is famous for photographing soviet modernist
architecture.
(Photograph by Richard Pare – Narkomfin
Communal House, Moscow, C. 1995, Built 1930)
This image, I believe truly represents “Buildings in use”
although be it a dilapidated one, you get the sense of the people who live
here, with all of the nick knacks lying around, I really like the influx of
colour in this image and it gave me some inspiration for the images of my
friends cottage, which are in this assignment.
Books used
for this assignment;
·
My Cool Shed: An Inspirational Guide to Stylish
Hideaways; By Jane-Field Lewis; (This book is an
inspirational gem, I used this to have a look at the quirky ways in which you
can “escape” the everyday rat race and be inspired by the places that you see in
the remotest of places. The hideaways in the book are provided by the people
who use them to get away on a regular basis, to be able to be creative and
although there is nothing of this type in my assignment, I feel it broadened my
scope and view point as to what I could achieve)
·
Light Science & Magic, An Introduction to
Photographic Lighting; By Fil Hunter, Steven Biver and Paul Fuqua; (This book always helps me understand lighting, I have used
sections from it to help me with taking images of the buildings for this
assignment)
·
Skyscrapers: A history of the World’s Most
Extraordinary Buildings; Revised and updated by Judith Dupre and Adrian Smith (I used this book to get more of an insight as to how to
photograph the Shard which helped me think about different viewpoints for the
skyscraper and in actual fact, this book helped me with the whole assignment,
due to the content of history of the buildings in the book. There is a lot of
information about how buildings were built and great photographs to accompany
them)
Websites used
for this assignment;
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2489974/An-urban-explorers-holiday-album-Traveller-spends-free-time-visiting-abandoned-buildings-world-despite-arrested-20-times-trespass.html
- (To research Dan Marbaix and examine his photography)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pare
- (To research Richard Pare)
http://bombsite.com/issues/101/articles/2952
- (To research Richard Pare and examine his photography)
http://www.joelmeyerowitz.com/photography/after911.html
- (To research Joel Meyerowitz and examine his photography)
http://www.zanier.ch/free_projects/corridors_of_power#img22
- (To research Luca Zanier and examine his photography- Research in my learning
log)
http://www.hedrichblessing.com/scottvision1.html
- (To research Scott McDonald and examine his photography Research in my
learning log)
Websites used -
All of the
websites below were used for the research for the history of the buildings in
this assignment
Samuel Moore
Foods – Hazelwood Grocery Divisions (Abandoned Jam Factory)
When I was thinking and searching for buildings to take
images of, I came across an article on www.msn.com
called “Industrial Wasteland” which had images of derelict buildings taken by Daniel
Barter and in an odd way they were eerily beautiful, with a sense that people
had been there.
I decided to look in to this further and try to find an
abandoned building myself. I came across a website called www.derelictplaces.co.uk, which is where
people who had a common interest in abandoned buildings would share their findings
and images. I wanted to photograph a factory that still had some remnants that
that people had been there.
I came across an abandoned factory based in a little
village called Easterton in Wiltshire, not only was the name quaint, the
village was too. It appeared that the factory would have been the main source
of employment in this village and it was a shame to see that it had closed.
There was also what seemed to be a house on the factory grounds, alas; I could
not enter the house as it was boarded up.
This jam factory was first opened in 1868, by Samuel
Sanders who built a small preserving machine, then in 1908 he died and the
factory closed. In 1918 Samuel Moore reopened the factory, then after his death
his son’s took over the factory.
In
1972 a large company from Surrey “Hazelwood Foods” took over the factory and on
30th April 1985 a new extension was built which Princess Ann
officially opened and took a tour around the factory grounds. Below is a
newspaper cutting of that day from the Western Daily Press.
The factory sadly closed in the 1990’s. I cannot seem to
get an exact date of when it closed, but given its long and famous history it
is a real shame that they are no longer in business. I have included some older
images that I retrieved from the internet. The photograph below is an aerial
view of Easterton in the 1970’s, the photographer is unknown.
The image below is an artist’s depiction of the main
building and was made in to a postcard. The artist was John Worsford and this
drawing probably dates from around the 1980’s.
Present day
With all of this long and royal history, I had to visit
this factory and use it for this assignment. At the factory grounds there were
a few different buildings I could enter. I went into a small building which seemed
to be the control room or power room. Opposite this small building there was
another building with its door ajar; it was a small room leading in to a large
room with tanks and an office at the back.
The building drawn above was huge and almost completely
empty; it lent itself to a lot of light and had remnants of people who had been
there. Opposite this building was another large building on two floors with the
remains of some old factory equipment and filing cabinets. It was not until I
entered this building that I began to feel slightly uneasy with the
surroundings. At this point I had already been there for a few hours and even
though the uneasiness did not subside I stayed for another hour.
As the building is now derelict it was a bit difficult to
understand why it was designed the way it was and its useable space, but if I
had to guess when I was there I would say that the flow of the older buildings
moved quite well, it looked like the main building was where the jam was
transported, which led on to an easily accessible driveway. The offices were in
the rooms which directly linked to the tanks, possibly to be able to inspect
them. The only part that I thought did not flow well was what seemed to be the
new build. I am sure it had a good functionally to make the jam, however it had
no scope to actually load the truck to transport the produce. I feel the
distribution of the jam would have been difficult from the new section of the
building.
Following
are the final images I chose to include in this assignment.
1; 0.4 seconds at f/10.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
This
was the small room that lead into the large room with tanks. I wanted to keep
the aperture as high as I could to get everything in focus as much as possible.
So not to compromise the light I used a very slow shutter speed and a tripod. I
included this image due to the remnants of the fridge, filing cabinets and
items on the floor. In one of the corners was an old pair of safety glasses and
overalls which I wanted to use in this image but felt I should leave everything
the way it was. Throughout the series of these images I wanted to do very dark
contrasted images to give it the abandoned feel.
2; 1/10 seconds at f/7.1 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 IS
This
image was taken inside the large section of the building, the one that is drawn
on the postcard picture above. This section of the factory lent itself to a lot
more light as there was not really a front to the building anymore and the
majority of panels had been kicked in. I used a low aperture, so to focus on
the chair in front and even though it was lighter in this section of the
building I still wanted to keep the image as dark and sinister as possible,
hence the reason for the higher shutter speed.
3; 1/10 seconds at f/6.3 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 IS
This
photograph was also taken in the large building. I wanted to focus on the sign due
to the irony and to have it leading from the bottom of the frame to the top. I
also wanted to include the evidence of the old bottles to show that people had
been in the building even after it had closed. On reflection, I should have
used my wide angle lens for this image.
4; 1/4 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
This was taken in the last building I went into and
although I wanted to keep the dark contrast, I liked the way the light fell in
this photograph and I feel the set of scales that got left behind in front of
the staircase gave a good foreground to the image.
Contact sheet
I really like all of these images, but as I could only
pick four of them for my assignment, I chose the ones that were in focus and
gave a sense that people had been there or where there. I especially liked the
graffiti image 6154 as it was funny, but I felt it did not lend itself to the
assignment brief. I also liked image of the fan on the ceiling 6247 but again
it did not give the sense that people had been evident in the building.
The Shard
For the diversity of this assignment and moving from old
to new, I next chose to photograph the Shard. I am lucky enough to know the
building manager and I got the very rare and exciting opportunity to go to the
very top of the building, past the tourist areas where few people have gone, up
to the 87th floor.
I wanted to include a building which catered to a myriad
of different clientele like office workers, diners, hotel guests and tourists.
Even though I wanted to concentrate on all aspects it was impossible for me to
do so due to the building security, so I decided to concentrate mainly on the tourist
aspect of the building which is at the top with a viewing area called “The
View” where there is indeed an amazing view of London.
The building was designed in 2000 by the Italian
architect Renzo Piano. The construction of the Shard began in 2009 and the
building was completed in 2012, although not all areas of the build are
completed as of yet. Named the Shard due
to looking like a shard of glass, the whole building is 1,016ft (310m) high
which makes it the tallest building in Western Europe.
The
construction of the building took 3 to 4 years to build. Below is an image of
the start of the construction, which was taken by Will Fox.
On the 5th July 2012, the Shard was
inaugurated in a ceremony by the Prime Minister of Qatar; Hamad bin Jaber Al
Thani, which Prince Andrew the Duke of York attended and the ceremony featured
a laser light show that included 30 searchlights, shown below in this picture
taken by Richard Goldschmidt.
Present day
There are 72 habitable floors and on the 72nd
floor is the highest viewing gallery in the UK. There is no record yet as to
how many people have visited the view in 2013.
On entering the lift, the ceiling turns into an unforgiveable
brightly lit kaleidoscope which plays a sequence whilst the helpful team
members give information and facts about the speed of the lift and the
building.
The first lift takes you up to the 33rd floor which
climbs 6 meters per second, so it takes 30 seconds, where you then transfer
into another lift that takes you to the 68th floor.
From there, you walk to the 72nd floor; they
say that on this floor on a clear day you can see up to 40 miles away. I stayed
on the tourist floors and took some images first, after which I got to go the
87th floor where you have to walk up the whole way and at one point
climb up a fixed ladder. I saw where the Greenpeace climbers got to when they
climbed the building in protest.
When we reached the top there was a section which you
stand in and can look straight down at the tourists below; I was grinning like
a Cheshire cat, it was one of the most amazing views I have ever seen.
I chose to shoot at dusk which made everything a bit more
difficult. However, I wanted to achieve photographs of London at night, and
there were bound to be more people at that time of day, at this time of year.
As
a landmark building in London, I think the building works well for the function
that it is intended for, it does look like a Shard of glass and the name is
easy to remember, the height gives fantastic views across London and from what
I saw, the office areas and restaurants work well as a usable space. It is easy
to get a bit lost if you are new to the building, however I am sure that once
you have been there for a week, it would be easy to navigate through the large
space. The entrances for where you want to go are clearly marked and the signs inside
the building were clear, I think it is just that the sheer size can be a bit
overwhelming.
1; 0.4 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I used my wide angle lens as I wanted to get the view of
London in as much as possible as well as the people. I focused in on the man, although
it did not come out as sharp as I would have liked but I really like the
composition of this image. I think the Christmas tree lights bouncing off of
the glass gives it a great sense of place and time, as well as what the person
can actually see.
2; 0.4 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I wanted to include a sense of scale to “The View” and
include the tourists, again using my wide angle lens so to show how they behave
when visiting the Shard.
As predicted,
everyone is looking at an electronic device about to take a photograph; I
particularly like the man taking a so called “Selfie”. I think the grandeur of
this image is portrayed well and gives a good sense of scale between the
building and the people.
3; 0.5 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
Still
using my wide angle lens, this photograph was taken from above the usual
tourist viewing platform. I wanted to get the perspective of the tourists from
above and looking over London at the same time whilst they were looking at the
view. I mainly focused on the tourists, rather than the view.
4; 0.4 seconds at f/3.5 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
This is my favourite photograph in the entire assignment.
I included some of the building in this photograph and thousands of people,
even if they are not visible. I think the amount of lights and the haze of
light pollution depicts the evidence of people and the flow of traffic from the
cars below show the amount of people. I would like to have got more of the
building in but the light was too strong which would have enveloped the image
and would not have made a good photograph.
I felt the first image on the contact sheet did not give
a large enough sense of scale and the wall in the image encroached on the right
hand side. The other images were too blurred and the last image was taken
through glass, which gave a lot of reflection, I also did not line it up
correctly and if I had cropped it, it would have made for a much smaller and
inadequate image.
Cottage
I chose to photograph a cottage which belongs to a very
dear friend of mine. He very kindly offered to let me photograph the cottage
and him. He then gave me a lot of information about the history of the cottage.
It was built in 1890 by his great granddad Ernie Dowsett,
his family own the one acre land that the cottage is built on and is still in
his family today. There is a big chalk cliff on the land and this is where they
decided to build their home. His great granddad along with family and friends
dug a hole in the side of the chalk cliff and used the remainder of the chalk
to build the house. They mixed it with straw, sand and earth to make a material
known as Cob. It was build from the ground up, starting at a width of 1 ½ foot
and tapering off to 1 foot at the top, this was then covered with a waterproof
top skin on the outside and had a tiled roof put on and joists put in for the
windows.
The family have
lived there ever since and unfortunately, I cannot seem to retrieve any past
images of the building. However, I am sure it has not changed all that much
over the years.
Present day
My friend’s parents live in one half of the cottage and my
friend temporarily lives in the other. I say temporarily as he permanently
lives with his girlfriend and uses his half of the cottage to do renovations on
his motorbikes.
Obviously
this building was built for the initial purpose of it being a person’s home and
the design and flow of the building works well if you wanted to have a utility
room and it has a large space upstairs to expand on. The only thing I think does
not work well is the bathroom. The vacant space could have been filled in more
with the bedroom wall to expand it slightly, or a shower could have been put in
place, I am sure at the time the possibility of a shower was not an option. I
feel the other rooms are designed well and my friend has made very good use if
the space to be able to work on his motor bikes.
1; 1/160 seconds at f/7.1 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
Like
the majority of my images in this assignment I used a wide angle lens to
capture as much of the surroundings as possible. I wanted to capture Mark with
his surroundings, having a break from working on his motorbike. This is his
living room and as you can see he has a lovely open fire. His dad helped him
build the wood wall and the fireplace.
2; 1/50 seconds at f/6.3 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
This
is Marks workshop. It is a small space so I crouched in the corner to take this
image, although it is big enough to walk through without the chair being there.
He designed it well, with a lot of the tools he needs on the wall and on the
shelves behind him. I wanted to get a large sense of scale with the motorbike
being very prominent in the image.
3; 1/40 seconds at f/22.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
The
light did not lend itself well in the spare room and as I wanted to get everything
in focus, I used a high aperture with a speed light. I included this room to
emphasise the fact that it is a temporary home, as this room is used for
storage.
4; 1/6 seconds at f/7.1 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I
included the image of the bathroom, as I wanted to get an image with the shelf
with all of the motorbike parts reflecting in the mirror. I used a low aperture
to focus more on the mirror, rather than the rest of the room.
Contact sheet
These images were good, however, I wanted Mark to look
small in the space and concentrate on the building, rather than Mark himself, I
do like image 6384, but I focused too much on the bike and it took over the
image. The last image was to warped to include and I felt the other image of
the spare room that I used in my assignment was better composed.
Borough market
I visited my nemesis
again; I went back to borough market to tackle the challenges that I had
earlier in this module. I felt uncomfortable taking images when I was at the
market first time around, hence the reason for including it in this assignment.
I wanted to prove to myself that I could achieve the images I wanted to take
without my own awkwardness getting in the way. I also thought this market would
fit well within the scope of diversity.
It is said that
borough market has been a place for trading food as far back as the 13th
century. It has closed only once throughout its history in 1755 due to traffic
congestion. However, residents of Southwark raised the money to buy a patch of
land in the heart of the old market and it has been running ever since.
The way the building
stands today, was a final design in 1851 with additional buildings added on and
refurbishments in 1860, 1932, 2001 and 2004
This is another famous
place, with different celebrity chefs attending and filming here and the market
has also used in British films over the years.
On looking at the
outside of the building, how it looks now and how it looked in the past, it is
extremely similar; I like how they have done the refurbishment but kept the
building in the same deign to keep its originality. Here is an image of how the
building looked around 1860, copyright law has expired on this image and I cannot
source the original artist.
I also took images
around the market of the old signs that still exist. Here is an example of one
which is a “Schedule of the rents”; I think it is great that they have kept a
lot of the original fixtures.
.JPG)
Present day
It is said that there
are over 150 stalls are at the market now, selling a variety of goods in the
food and drink sector and this building can also be hired out for events.
When entering the market
I felt a lot more relaxed than the previous time and I was more open with the
traders, asking them if I could take images and all of them were open to it.
When walking around and capturing images with other people, I found that a lot
of them covered their faces, obviously they did not want to be photographed, it
was a bit strange as I had not seen people physically covering their face
before. Nonetheless I managed to get some good photographs that include how the
space of the market is used.
The building was
specifically build for traders, all those years ago and it has expanded over
the years, for this reason I feel the space can be slightly confusing, there
are multiple entrances with an old section and slightly newer section, it can
be that when you walk through you do not know where it ends.
The directional flow of
the main older section of the market works well as dose the newer section, but
if you did not know there were two sections, it would be difficult to navigate
around. I think if the extension was able to be built on the same patch of the original
area, without the small roads leading through; it would have possibly helped
the traders to sell more. With the popularity of the market though, it may not
make too much of a difference to the traders.
1; 1/25 seconds at f/6.3 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 IS
I wanted to capture
the selling aspect within the market, as well as the market stalls themselves
and although they do not make up part of the building per say, they are still
an integral part of the surroundings.
I wanted to focus
mainly on the people, hence the reason for the low aperture.
2; 1/25 seconds at f/5.0 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I like the flow of
this image, with the sign in front and the surrounding signs, I think it
depicts the market well with the direction of how the people flow through it. I
concentrated my focus on the sign in front, so to give a lead in line towards
the end of the image and the feeling of the long pathway. I used my wide angle lens
to encompass as much of the market as possible.
3; 1/20 seconds at f/6.3 – Lens EF-S 18-200mm
f/3.5-5.6 IS
I decided to include
another image of one of the stalls from a different perspective. I chose to
focus on the food that was cooking and the people who were in front of it
wanting to buy it. I think the motion blur of the person who is working at the
stall is very effective and makes the image.
4; 1/20 seconds at f/6.3 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I am glad I included
the stalls, but I think the main image is this one; it really shows the
enormity of the market and this is only a small part of it. This walkway leads
to the front of the building, similar to the artists drawing earlier.
I used a small
aperture as I wanted to focus on the people in the photograph, rather than the
whole frame of the image.
Contact sheet
I found it extremely
difficult to choose from these images, as I think they are good images
composition wise. They were not in the best of focus though and I felt the
other images spoke more to the assignment brief. I really like image 6892, I
tried to focus on the woman, but kept getting the cheese tower in focus, she
moved around a lot, so it proved difficult for me to focus on her, which did
not make for a good image.
The O2
This building was
first named “Millennium Dome” due to it being opened on the turn of the
century, it used to house the “Millennium experience” which was multitude of
different exhibits, that was divided in to 14 different stage points, but with
3 main categories;
- Who we are
- What we do
- Where we live
There was also a
staging area in the middle of the dome, where acrobatic performances were shown
on a regular basis but unfortunately, the exhibits were condemned due to the
lack of content and the building closed its doors. It was temporarily reopened
at points to house the winter wonderland and as a homeless shelter amongst
others, until the building was bought out by Telefonica Europe and publicly
renamed as the O2. The arena also housed some of the Olympic and Paralympics
games including wheelchair basketball.
This is an earlier image
of the O2 under construction by Craig Hannah.
Present day
The O2 now houses a plethora of different attractions and
activities. Its main draw is restaurants and concerts, as well as club nights,
a cinema and Christmas markets.
I had never been to the O2 until this year and upon
entering I felt that it was a very cold building and extremely large. I do like
the shape of it, but not the feel; when you are outside looking in it feels
like it could possibly be a warm feeling building due to the round construction
and when the light hits the dome it is beautiful.
I chose to photograph it due to the different attractions
that it holds, as well as it being the only building of its kind in the world.
As this was initially built for an exhibition, I feel it
was designed well thought out, it is a large space that can hold a multitude of
large exhibits and even though I never went there when it was an exhibition centre,
I feel it would have flowed well.
As it stands today the directional flow is the best out of
all of the buildings, as there is no way you could get lost here even though it
is a very large building. The pathway around the inside of the O2 is a big
circle with all of the restaurants and bars either side of the pathway, so
there really is only one way to go. I know there are different entrances and I
once went to a club night there, which was clearly marked and once inside it
was easy to navigate around.
1; 1/25 seconds at f/16 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I included this image due to the people walking to the
exit of the building, the silhouettes and their slight reflections along with
the large ceiling give a good sense of scale.
No
matter what position I was in though, I could not get the two pillars to be
symmetrical, it is not because of my framing, but because they are not equally
spaced. I wanted to get everything in focus, hence the high aperture.
2; 1/13 seconds at f/5.6 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I used a low aperture to concentrate my camera focus on
the people, but used my wide angle lens to achieve the sense of scale.
The
O2 houses a lot of restaurants and bars; I think this is what attracts people
the most, so I wanted to show this with my photograph.
3; 1/30 seconds at f/5.6 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
There
were a few people going up to the cinema and initially I tried to photograph
them although the image did not turn out how I wanted it to. Therefore, I
experimented and went up, then down the escalator myself. I included this image
as it is a good perspective of the building from the user’s viewpoint.
4; 1/40 seconds at f/5.6 – Lens EF-S 10-22mm
f/3.5-4.5 USM
I chose this image for the sheer scale of the photograph,
with people looking like dots in the background. In hindsight I should have
used a higher aperture; however, I wanted to concentrate on the ceiling to show
how large the building is. This is also a strange section because every time I
visit, nothing is ever really going on here; this is solely a walkway and I
wanted to show the lack of use of the space.
I realise the image is slightly off kilter and like
before I tried my best to get it level, but the lines do not match up to be
straight, possibly due to it being a round building. I tried to correct this in
post production but every time I tried, it looked worse.
Contact sheet
I really wanted to include image 6690 as it is a fun
image. This wall is made of old LP’s and cassette tapes and I tried to include
people in the image that were not so blurred, but to no avail. I did not
include the others due to the lack of people and the flatness of the images.
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