Richard Billingham

Sometimes when researching a photographers work you discover a connection to another.  I’m fascinated by photographers who’ve successfully carried out projects in and around the Black Country.  I was born in the black country and although my upbringing wasn’t stereotypical, I was exposed to certain associated attributes.  Whilst researching Martin Parrs work I came across his ‘black country stories’ series.  One photograph from this series that stood out for me was a father and son inside a factory in Cradley Heath.  I then looked at other projects carried out in Cradley heath and came across Richard Billingham.

Richard Billingham grew up in Cradley Heath with his parents, Raymond ‘Ray’, a chronic alcoholic and Elizabeth ‘Liz’, an obese chain smoker.  A book was released ‘Ray’s a laugh’ by Billingham chronicling his family life in photographs.  It’s a family album thats frank and honest and unlike others shows the good and the bad in a very matter of fact way.  Even at the young age of 19, Billingham had the foresight to document his family life exactly as it is, warts and all.

Although the idea of photographing Ray came out of a college project Billingham couldn’t have known the importance of his photographs until later.  When you look at the compositions they are awkward but this is over shadowed by the story they’re telling.  In the photo of Liz stretched out on the sofa the angle is incredibly unflattering which in this instance works very well.

Some of the photos are quite tense.  the one of Liz standing next to Ray with her fist clenched, Ray occupies such a small area of the frame with his face quite close to the edge and instantly evokes a feeling of frustration and a very tense moment.

It seems the more clutter in the backgrounds the better the story with every detail adding more narrative.

Ray is sat on the toilet floor and the door frame also frames the picture which ordinarily would have been in portrait format.  This one is in landscape format and instantly cuts off any view above Rays head.  It feels as though Ray is stuck down there.  There is no space to stand up into.  This is a true representation of Rays state at that time.  He couldn’t have stood up either as being an alcoholic we can assume he was too intoxicated.  This photograph tells that story perfectly.

I feel inspired to look through the photos I took as a child and teenager to see if I give an insight into true family life within our household.  Before I do, I’m guessing, my photos are all of happy smiling family members in an average house, with average furniture and nothing really to stand out from the norm.  I had my first camera at the age of 9 but only really recorded special days, special visitors and days out.  What a shame it didn’t occur to me to photograph life like Richard Billingham.

Peter Dazeley

I stumbled upon the work of Peter Dazeley when working on Part Three of People and Place which was about buildings and spaces.

Dazeley, a Londoner born and bred carried out a project called London Unseen.  In it, he visits buildings within London that are out of reach to the public and therefore ‘unseen’.  The series includes photographs of such iconic buildings such as, Battersea power station, Big Ben’s bells and Henry VIII’s wine cellar.

I can only imagine the hoops Dazeley had to jump through to obtain permission to gain entry to these places let alone agreed to photograph them.  The planning must have been immense and the execution just as intense.

What I like about Dazeleys work is that it’s quite simplistic in nature.  He has the right balance of additions and omissions from his work to get across to his audience the atmosphere of a room the scale of a building.

Aldwych: The disused London Underground station was only closed in 1994 and is still visible above ground. It was used by thousands of Londoners during the Blitz.

 

The Bell inside Big Ben, showing its crack and hole – caused in 1859.

Dead Man’s Walk: A legacy of the old Newgate Prison, this exists under the Old Bailey – and was the route that a condemned prisoner followed from the cell to the gallows.

The main pump room of Crossness Pumping Station, showing off the engineering secret of Victorian sewer systems. It is open to visitors four times a year.

 

The hexagonal central hall of Wandsworth Prison in south-west London, which dates back more than 150 years and is one of the biggest prisons in Europe.

King Henry VIII’s wine cellar, built in 1516, which is now under the Ministry of Defence building in Whitehall.

Repton Boxing Club in Bethnal Green, which launched the career of Audley Harrison.

A safe deposit entrance at the Midland Bank in Poultry, with a 25-ton vault door, guarding 3,800 private boxes of varying sizes.

Control Room A: Battersea Power Station’s control desk, marble walls, elaborate ceiling and wooden floor. Some instrumentation is housed in wall-mounted displays.

Researching Dazeleys work and in particular the ‘London unseen’ series helped me to understand which elements are needed within a photograph to best describe its use and function.

One of the photographs that stands of to me is ‘Dead mans walk’.  It is essentially a photograph of a series of arches forming a corridor.  What I noticed is the clinical nature of the tiled walls, they’re everywhere and this coupled with the concrete floor gives a very unwelcome look to the place. The archways that appear within each other seem endless because they disappear into darkness.  This is very indicative of what the corridor is used for.  Criminals sentenced to death walking into the eternal darkness.  Of course without a footnote we wouldn’t really know what the purpose of this building was but it’s sinister feel gives a good indication.

In the London Underground photograph, Dazeley places himself on the actual train tracks giving a low down view of the building.  I think he’s done this to focus on the main event, that is, the trains viewpoint, whilst also allowing the viewer to see the platform and the tunnel going into the distance.

So, it’s not just what Dazeley choses to photograph, its where he decides is the best perspective to tell the story to it’s fullest.  Whilst being successful in doing this he also produces a very pleasing photo.  One thing Iove in photos is symmetry and Dazeley seems to have this style down to a tee.

 

Selective processing and prominence

So far no consideration has been given to post processing techniques and how they fit in with making people or place less or more prominent in an image.

I chose a photograph I took on one of my many photowalks for this section of the course and set about making the figures seem either more or less prominent in the frame.

For the post processing I used a Photoshop software and some very basic tools.  Firstly I selected the background and made adjustments to only that.  I increased the exposure and brightness of the background which made the figures stand out more.

I have read about the controversial opinions of post processing and purists believe it’s not part of the art of photography but if it makes the difference between a good photo and a great photo then surely the end result is what matters regardless of the process.

Balancing figure and space

I chose these photographs from two previous exercises to demonstrate how to control the balance of attention between figure and space.

In this photograph 1 the eye is drawn to the figure but in Photograph two the eye is focussed more on the landscape.  Both figures are in similar positions and both facing away from the camera although the balance of attention is different.

Photograph 1:

Photograph 2:

What makes the figure in photograph one hold more attention it’s his contrast in colours making git stand out more than the space around it.  However, the figure in photograph 2, struggles to take attention away from the landscape with its more muted tones.

Making figures anonymous

Anonymous figures can be used in an otherwise static image of subjects such as landscapes.  Using a figure that doesn’t stand out as the main part of the image can do one of two things, bring the place to life and give an idea of the scale of the landscape.

There are many ways to make a figure anonymous, that is unrecognisable as an individual, by using silhouettes, using many small figures, facing away, partly obscured or even blurring the motion of the person.

In this image, most of the persons face is obscured but also the clothing colours are neutral making the landscape the main feature of the image.  If the figure had been wearing red, for instance, the viewers eye would be drawn straight to the person.

Busy Traffic

Trying to find a scenario where there is busy foot traffic in a place that allows photography isn’t as easy as first thought.  I went out into town but I looked odd with my camera and felt uneasy as people were staring and being confrontational.  I didn’t have time to think about what I was shooting and ended up with a very unsatisfying set of images.

I then decided to try a local event where it wouldn’t seem odd to be pointing a camera at a group of people and despite the fact it was a children’s event I was able to give thought and consideration to what I wanted to achieve.

I found a composition I was happy with which showed a lot of children competing in a sports day which also had the Ironbridge pots in the background to give a sense of where we were.

Although you can see parents scattered about and children lined up, this particular image doesn’t clearly show the activity taking place.  When I found this pleasing composition it was the last race and I was adjacent to the start but the children have raced to the finish line away from me.  If I’d known it was the last race I would have been more prepared!

What I like about this image is the formation of parents changing, one mum is getting up others are heading for their children, and you can see a line of parents has formed.

A Single small figure

After reading the section on quiet places busy places, I had in mind to look for opportunity whilst out with my camera rather than stage this shot.  By chance on my first outing I was walking along the river and saw someone in a place people don’t usual venture to.  This was the perfect setting and even the composition was how I’d imagined with the figure being far off centre but with something to balance it out on the other side.

Heres what I found:

Assignment Four – A sense of Place

‘Not Just A Fancy Bridge’

I pondered an awful lot over which direction to take with this assignment. The brief was to draw upon the techniques and processes learnt so far under the guise of People interacting with place and to choose a location that was both well-known to me and easily accessible.

This was an easy decision to make as I happen to live in the very beautiful Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. I know it well and I live amongst it so it was easy for me to plan shoots and plenty of them.

It probably wasn’t the best time of year to plan outdoor shoots in April as the rain was relentless however, May bought some better weather and had more of the warm tones I was hoping to capture to show the place in it’s best light.

The brief also stated that this assignment wasn’t to shot in the theme of a tourism point of view but more in keeping with a travel publication. From that I decided that my angle would be to photograph the lesser known activities of popular tourist destination.

In truth, as residents, we get frustrated by the actions of some visitors to Ironbridge. Some park across our drives, speed around with music blaring, drop litter anywhere and everywhere but for a travel publication I didn’t want to document this side of being a resident. It’s more than that, we have so many places to walk and lots to look at on the way. One point that is very important to mention is the time of day my photo walks took place, that being ‘when the tourists leave town’, early morning or early evening as everything in between belongs to the tourist’s.

My aim here was to capture the various ways this place is used by both its residents and tourists other than the obvious famous bridge and numerous museums. Ironbridge is a town steeped in historical buildings and architecture with various paths forged throughout the years to different places.  A favourite resident pastime is simply walking in the evening, generally heading along the river Severn to or beyond the Iron bridge, stopping to take in its beauty and wonder. Art is prominent in the town and local artists are often seen painting at the riverside. It is an area for leisure activities and there are plenty to be had, the river Severn is a huge focus point for children.

To summarise, my intention was to capture Ironbridge culture at various times throughout the day.

My final six images:

 With so much to say about one place it was difficult to narrow down my selection to six photographs.  The final six were chosen for the way they show people using their space and the variety of functions on offer.

I think I have succeeded in giving an insight into life in a tourist town without the tourist holiday type trappings.  The final selection of photographs were taken at all times of the day but mainly focusing on the quieter times with the glorious golden light and I hope this comes across in my work.  Ironbridge can be incredibly busy during holiday periods but most of the time it appears as it does in the final selection.

I had hoped to show a variety in subjects, poses, techniques and narrative although having put it all together I can see that there is a similarity in them all.  I do have some differing shots in the six photographs I decided not o include in my final six selection but they seemed to steer away from the original theme or didn’t seem relevant.

The photographs I chose not to include:

There are reason for each of these photographs not being included but ultimately I didn’t think they added to the theme of capturing the essence of the place in the light that I feel it deserves.  Some are simply good photographs but not relevant.

The photograph above of the child standing in front of the gates is the type of photograph I would produce without a theme to work to.  When presented together they wouldn’t have made any sense in relation to the assignment.  My approach would have been to see what I think would present as a photograph and continue like this.  I like to play with falling sunlight when it’s low in the sky, casting long shadows and perfecting silhouettes and this would have been my approach to this assignment.  When trying to make a correlation between them all it would have been unstructured.

Planning Assignment 3 – Buildings in use

What I need to do:

• Choose five or six buildings
  • church
  • cinema
  • YHA
  • DeliDale
  • Enginuity
  • Library
• Produce two to four images of each building

The focus:

• Images need to be effective and attractive
• Show the way in which the spaces are used
• Can include people

Preparation:

• Research each building whether archival or person or both

• obtain a good understanding of how and why the building was designed that way

also:

• develop an opinion on the buildings effectiveness as a usable space
• Use a variety of buildings

Write up:

• Write a short statement demonstrating understanding of the function of the building, the way it was designed to achieve that, and how well it succeeds
• Describe briefly how I initially set about showing the important features of each building photographically
• What did I learn

 

Church – Holy Trinity Coalbrookdale

I contacted the church warden who was very helpful and agreed to meet me at the church on Saturday 12th March 2016 at 2.00pm.

Margaret, the church warden, gave me lots of information relating to the church and was a life long member having been christened, confirmed and married at the church.  Margaret went on to say she’s also mindful that she will take her last service at the church one day.

Coalbrookdale itself is steeped in history however I’ll concentrate on the history relating to the church.

After 3 generations of Darby’s being Quakers, Abraham Darby IV left the Quaker belief behind for the more modern Anglican beliefs and donated money to the town to construct this church. Built 1850-1854, it stands in a commanding position on Church Road.

The church has ironworks visible in the churchyard starting with the iron gates, gravestone surrounds, iron grave markers of varying designs, wonderful stained glass Flemish windows gifted to the church by the Darby sisters, ten bells in the clock tower which ring regularly, stone carvings of members of the Darby family above the carved pews, an amazing painted ceiling given by Muriel Cope-Darby in memory to her brother Lt. Morris Alfred Alexander Darby who fell in war overseas in 1915.

Since the Fourth generation of Darby’s converted to Anglicanism, they are buried in the churchyard as are the parents of Captain Mathew Webb, first man to swim the English Channel.

Cinema – Cineworld, Southwater, Telford.

Southwater in Telford is a new exciting development of leisure outlets including Restaurants, an ice rink and Library.  It sits on the edge of the town park and provides the link needed to marry the park with the town.

The cinema in particular has an impressive foyer with the screens sitting above the restaurants which  maximises the usable space available.

I planned my visit an decided to seek permission to photograph the foyer area of the cinema.  Upon arrival there weren’t any assistants available to ask permission so I thought as long as I avoid photographing people they’re shouldn’t be an issue.  This seemed fine until I went to the upstairs area when I was approached and asked what I was doing.  I explained I was working on a project for my Photography course but I told I wouldn’t be able to continue.  I pointed out to the assistant that there were people around taking selfies and photographing groups using their mobile phones so if I’m not allowed to take photographs they shouldn’t either.  The assistant said thats different.  I asked how? but when I was told ‘it just is’ I thought I can’t have a debate with someone who can’t answer a question so I left.  However, I took the photos I needed on my way out.

Library – Southwater, Telford.

Part of the Southwester development to provide leisure and resources to the the people of Telford and surrounding areas.

The library is a building containing four floors and each is reached either via a lift or escalator thats situated in the middle of the building.  This works well as you can see the entire floor from the escalators.

On the day I visited the Library was unexpectedly closed.  I’ve had to eliminate this building from my assignment.

DeliDale – Is a local delicatessen\cafe.  However, I’d say its a cafe predominantly that sells speciality cheeses and olives.  I chose this building because it’s limited on space and I was interested how this translates when photographed.

I asked the owners permission to photograph the inside space and they were obliging but I could only carry out my work when there were no customers in residence.  It took several visits but eventually I managed to turn up when no customers were present.

The building was originally built as ‘tuck shop’ which acted as a local newsagents come grocery store.  The building was originally build from timber but due to severe flooding a brick building was erected to replace the damaged timber building.  The brick building has been subject to two severe floods since, one reaching the top of the front door.  The damage was repaired and was reopened and a deli.

Enginuity – 

Enginuity is an interactive design and technology centre in Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, England. It is the newest of the ten museums operated by the Ironbridge Gorge Museum Trust and was opened in 2002. The museum’s exhibition floor is divided into four zones: Materials & Structures, Systems & Control, Energy and Design. Enginuity also offers workshops and interactive shows for school groups.

The building that houses Enginuity was previously called ‘The Engine House’ and formed part of the Coalbrookdale Company’s industrial empire.  The engine house did contain lots of different engines that carried out various tasks for instance, making iron goods.  I asked the Ironbridge gorge archives for photographs taken when the engine house was in service however, I’m still waiting for them.  I do have one photograph which shows the use of the space in 1900:

The building was designed to house engines to form a fitting out shop for the foundry.

The Pyramid –

Houses the remains of the water powered blast furnace where Abraham Darby I perfected the smelting of iron with coke instead of charcoal.

I wanted to include this building because the use of it’s space came first and the pyramid was designed and built around it.

How Space Changes With Light

The space I’m using in this exercise is my office at home, as it’s where I spend most of my time. I’ve often thought about the light in the room and wondered if it affects my mood or motivation. One thing I do know is that this room can change from light to dark and back again in the space of a few minutes so I knew I could carry out this exercise in one sitting but decided to pace it out throughout the day to also show how the changing weather can affect the space and how the light changes it.

This photograph was taken at around 10am when the sky was fairly overcast but without any rainfall. I’m certain the light on the wall is from my computer screen and in hindsight should have switched it off first to get a true representation of the natural light coming into the room. However, my screen is emitting light in all the photographs I took so its an accurate picture when comparing light at different times.

At midday the room was much brighter and I’ve just noticed, after saying my screen is on in all the photos, it isn’t switched on in this photo. I’m not sure it would have an affect anyway because the room is so bright. The sky had cleared and the sun was shining.

This is now in the afternoon at around 2pm. The sun is still shining albeit moved around to the right and has given this lovely effect of some shade but also some quite dramatic light through the blinds. This effect starts on the back wall and slowly throughout the day moves around to the side wall where it becomes placed inside the frame I’ve been using all day. This is my favourite lighting effect on a photograph but when I’m working at my desk I have to adjust the blinds to take the brightness away from my eyes. Notice too how ambient the light is in the room compared to the earlier versions.

I’m adding an extra photograph which shows how different the light is when the weather changes.

The light has diminished considerably during heavy rain. Even the light from the screen is struggling to brighten up the room. It’s quite rare the space is this dark unless its approaching sundown.

In conclusion, light can change the look and feel of a space to the point where it doesn’t seem like the same room. In this series of photographs the mood changes with the light to appear, moody, dramatic, artistic, miserable, dark, bright and happy. This also change with different types of weather and also throughout the seasons. I always look forward to the golden tones of light in Autumn lighting up all the russet bright colours, theres no season quite so dramatic. Of course, you can’t have light without shadows which add to the changing mood of the space too.