Space and Light at Leadenhall Market, then relocated to my friend's living room

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I started photographing for the project 'Space and light' at Leadenhall Market at one particular time; namely late evening. I had been inspired as shown in the previous post by Blaine Ellis' - 'Where Light Dwells' and so had purposefully chosen a location where light could enter through windows.

   Leadenhall Market was fine for lighting in the evening with many lamps in the vicinity and I got some atmospheric shots. I thought the (almost fully) artificial lighting made the space seem a lot more intimate and the people within too. I could see by looking at the photographs I took at this time that the reason for this was the warm 'glow' produced by the lamps. They provided a mostly yellow colour, which was mirrored by the walls.

3. Morning comparison

   However I found out that the morning shot I had planned for didn't work for two reasons. Firstly the lamps were still on quite late into the day and secondly not enough was coming in through the windows even though the Sun was shining brightly.

4. Evening comparison

5. Late evening comparison

   I decided to relocate to somewhere a lot more convenient (as the course had suggested initially) and I settled on my friend's living room where light entered at both morning and evening through the windows.

   In the morning there was for me a quite dreamy, tranquil feel to the room. Later in the evening the atmosphere was much more warm and mellow with lots more contrast. In both the morning and the evening the light from the opposite windows created long, dramatic shadows across the room.

6. Morning 1

   Lastly, for late evening I took a last photo with the house lights on, which I wasn't surprised to see (as I had already discovered it with Leadenhall Market) changed the atmosphere of the living space so that it became more intimate. In keeping with this'intimacy' I took some of the late evening photographs from a low user viewpoint to get across the closeness of the atmosphere this lighting produced.

7. Morning 2

9. Evening 2

8. Evening 1

10. Late evening 1

11. Late evening 2

12. Late evening 3

   What I came away with from this exercise was that light and shadows could change the complexion of a room radically and alter the mood of the photograph. I found the research I conducted in the previous post to be helpful and leave me with a lasting impression: what could be achieved with striking lighting in an interior. If I could have improved anything in this project it would for me to have found a space where the rays of light were visible entering the space like in Blaine Ellis' photographs - 'Where Light Dwells' as mentioned in the previous post.

'Where Light Dwells'

I recently came across a photographer that was a timely and inspiring discovery for me. His name was Blaine Ellis and I found his series of photographs called 'Where Light Dwells' (found at: http://www.photoeye.com/gallery/forms2/index.cfm?image=1&id=12375&imagePosition=1&Door=7&Portfolio=Portfolio1&Gallery=2&Page= and accessed on 14 July 2012) to be exactly what I needed as I researched for the project 'Space and light'.

   The main aspect of those photographs that I got a lasting impression from was the way light fell dramatically and distinctively (compared to the rest of the components of the photograph) through the various windows. This light then fell on the features of the rooms and created interesting shadows and showed off textures.

   Probably the most intense example in the 'Where Light Dwells' series by Blaine Ellis for me was 'Caravansarie, Central Turkey, 2000' where all three of the features mentioned in the previous paragraph came into play.

   What I came away with from looking at these photographs was how light through windows or glass could dramatically affect the objects within an interior. Of course this would change as the light changed from outside or within but I was sure to take note of the manner in which light from outside could change the feel of a room.

From the User's Viewpoint

I found that the concept of taking a location, in this case a building or space and mirroring the viewpoint of the user to be very interesting. This was because I suppose I had been experimenting with this in the previous part to People and Place, although this had all been from a low viewpoint. I also found it easier to imagine distinctive user viewpoints as being low down for example at a bowling alley or at a yoga class.

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   Eventually I settled, for the low user viewpoint, to photograph a bowling green space as the location, with a few people playing bowls to emphasise that they clearly had to get down really low when placing their shots. I used the flip-out screen of my camera to get down to the desired level easily and took a variety of shots that I thought showed effectively how the space was being used. The reason I concluded this was the lower viewpoint made the viewer more involved like you were there. I knew this was a common term in photography but I experienced this to be true with the low viewpoint.

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   Logically (for me at least) the next viewpoint to photograph from would be from high up looking down and so this is what I did. There was only one kind of scene I could imagine after thinking of ideas and that was of a performance with the user being one of the audience in the crowd looking down. There were a few options for this like a play, a musical or a ballet but I settled on a lecture hall.

   I was pleased with the results of the high viewpoint as well. To some extent there was a feeling of the user (or the viewer) being present in the room. Also there were no people present in the room but I found the space showed many human traces like the empty chairs, lecturer's desk and the projection screen; ready to be used.

'The King Alfred'

While researching non-architectural photography of buildings I found an (architectural) photograph of 'The King Alfred' by Simon Carruthers in the book 'Basics Creative Photography O2, Context and Narrative' by Maria Short. The reference for this is: S. Carruthers, The King Alfred, [Photograph]. In M. Short (2011), Basics Creative Photography O2, Context and Narrative, Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA, pages 92-93.

   Although the photograph (and photographs I later found on the Internet-
(http://simoncarruthers.org.uk/portfolio/king-alfred/, accessed on 10 July 2012) were mostly architectural and so weren't the type of photograph I was strictly looking for, I read a statement by Simon Carruthers that optimised what I had been coming to the conclusion of with my research. The quote was: 'My aim is to produce striking images to grab the attention but once I have your attention then it is time for the meaning of the work to come through.' -S. Carruthers, The King Alfred, [Photograph]. In M. Short (2011), Basics Creative Photography O2, Context and Narrative, Lausanne: AVA Publishing SA, page 92.

   My impressions of photographing buildings in use for the course were pretty much summed up by that one quote. Therefore I made a note of it and was quite confident it would come in useful as I went on.

The British Museum

Well, I managed to complete the exercise 'Exploring function' after a couple of setbacks. Firstly I discovered I needed permission to photograph at my local library so I decided to visit the British Library instead in an attempt to utilise the planning I had done with a library in mind. However, I found the British Library to offer a only marginally better proposal. This was photography being allowed in the main lobby but prohibited elsewhere, which wasn't whast I was looking for as my aim was to describe visually how a library 'worked'.

   I resorted to visiting the British Museum (fairly nearby) and started planning converting my impressions of the museum, as a public interior in terms of function, into a photograph that reflected this. Here is what I wrote:

   This space should primarily be somewhere people from all places can visit and explore a vast collection of varied artifacts and material from around the world. It should also 'lead' the visitors around the museum effectively so they can leave with interesting impressions. Lastly, it should provide a means for students or other learners to visit and gain insights that they might not be able to get otherwise.

   As far as 'leading' people around the museum went I felt the museum worked very well. Examples of  this were clear and informative signs at the entrance to most doorways between rooms. One, more visual aspect of these doorways, was their size. They were always quite large, which in my opinion, made the user more inticed to see what awaited in the next room. As you might expect from a museum as well-renowned as the British Museum, the museum had so much variety and interesting material and at times it was quite hard not to get distracted from the planning of the photograph!

   One thing I did notice however, was the way people leaned forwards as they peered into the many glass cabinets and noted this down as I thought it was interesting and helped to show how the museum worked.

   With all this information I had collected related to making a shot that showed function in a museum I set about putting it into practise. I firstly looked for a room that contained a large door and glass cabinets (that wasn't too hard to find). Also I took into consideration the fact that many rooms were not 'well-lit' so I looked for one that was. This was in order to not be constrained by technical difficulties like shutter speed for instance.

   While looking for a room that met these specifications I, quite luckily, stumbled across a room that contained a statue. While this might not sound particularly interesting or out of the ordinary, there was one feature of this statue, which stood out for me. This was the fact that the statue appeared to be 'looking' down and in the direction of the door where many people were entering.

   This for me meant there was extra interest added to the photograph I eventually took as it showed a person peering through one of the glass cabinets (as I had originally planned) but also the statue apparently 'staring' at the visitor. That was what made this photo 'stand out', I felt,while fulfilling its main purpose, which was to show how this interior space worked.

   Lastly, there was a large doorway in the frame of the photograph with signs informing the visitors what to explore as I had originally planned would be a feature of the photograph. This was important for me because  it showed a sense of progress through the museum could be achieved.

1. A functional photograph of how The British Museum works

   So here is the photograph, which I thought worked very well overall. My reasoning for this is that it served its main purpose well (showing how the museum functioned) but with added interest fom the statue. The statue for me suggested a relationship between the museum and its visitor.

Initial thoughts and research for 'Buildings and spaces'

The interior 'space' that sprung to my mind first when I started thinking about 'Buildings and spaces' was inside a library. More specifically the scene included a member of the library searching for a book while someone studied on a table nearby. This was quite a detailed imagining of the scene, which helped me generate extra ideas and viewpoints for how I would photograph a library as it was intended to be used later.

   As for research I admittedly found it difficult to come across artists that specialised in non-architectural photography of buildings and instead relied upon mostly singular works that I found fitted this niche and that inspired me.

   Some examples of this type of photgraph were Insomnia, 1994 by Jeff Wall found in C. Cotton, the photograph as contemporary art – New Edition 2009, C. Cotton, Thames and Hudson, London WC1V, 7QX, 2009, page 50 and David Spero's series of 'Ball Photographs' and 'Interiors (1997-2000): found at http://www.davidspero.co.uk/imagepages/ball/001ball.html and http://www.davidspero.co.uk/imagepages/interiors/001interiors.html and accessed on 5 July 2012. With Jeff Wall's work: Insomnia I thought the scene was very striking, obviously because of the man lying on the floor but also visually including colours and lighting. Those were the features that had the most impact on me firstly but looking again I found my eyes 'lead' around the photograph due to mainly the composition with its diagonal lines, half open doors and the placement of seemingly inconsequential objects that took more importance as I grasped the concept of the photo. The book I originally came across this photo in was: 'The Photograph as Contemporary Art' by Charlotte Cotton. It also made the same observation that the diagonal lines cleverly lead the viewer's eye around the photo and I made a note of this for myself for later on. For reference their way of putting that was:'the angles and objects of a kitchen scene directing us through the picture and leading our understanding of the action and narrative.'- C. Cotton, the photograph as contemporary art – New Edition 2009, C. Cotton, Thames and Hudson, London WC1V, 7QX, 2009, page 50.

   With David Spero's 'Ball Photographs' series the objects were of more importance and although quite unobtrusive at first glance, they made me look at the photographs in a different way; namely spatially. Again I made a note, this time regarding how objects when placed deliberately could impact on how a photograph was viewed. Obviously for me this would relate more to conveying how a building was used later on and the objects used would probably be different (not balls!) but I thought it was useful nevertheless.

   One artist I did find however, was Sarah Szwajkos. Although her work (of what was available) found at http://www.damnrabbitstudios.com/#/portfolios/fine-art/personal-space/080413-02-4-Edit_NEW and accessed on 6 July 2012, was stuck firmly in people's living spaces, I found it to be very useful and thought-provoking. The photographs for me clearly showed how the (all) interior spaces were used by people. This was very much in keeping with what I was trying to become familiar with. I thought it was clever that although no people were present in the photographs, to me at least, they were very much there in presence. I thought she managed to achieve this by placing objects that would be immediately familiar to the viewer in the photographs. Those objects would then suggest what the space was being used for. I decided I would keep a note of this artist and use it in Buildings and Spaces.

Amendments/replacements for Assignment 2 - People and activity

Image 4 - to be replaced

I have read my tutor's comments about my second assignment for People and Place and in retrospect I agree strongly with a lot of the comments he made. Fortunately, I felt I had the capacity in terms of the quality of unused photographs for the project that it was feasible to make amendments to the choice of photographs. I have since updated the blog in this post by replacing photos I realised were in some ways lacking in areas like clarity of the activity taking place and/or lighting/'decisive' moments.

Replacement for Image 4

Image 6 - to be replaced

Replacement for Image 6

   If there was one clear faculty in my selection for the assignment for me, it was that there was no clear shot of the development of the cardboard city from an objective point of view, which my tutor had picked up on. Instead there were a couple of weaker shots that were incidentally quite subjective type shots of participators to the city (like image 4), where no obvious connection was made between the city and the builders. Luckily, I had taken a shot offering an objective point of view and looking back was quite surprised I didn't choose it (replacement for Image 4) over the subjective type of photograph.


   Again I was surprised with the next replacement photograph (replacement for Image 6), that I didn't choose it initially over the replaced image (Image 6 - to be replaced) but the replacement image was indeed stronger in retrospect. This was because it remained subjective like the one it replaced but crucially better documented how the child was interacting with the city.

Image 9 - to be replaced

Replacement for Image 9

   The last shot I replaced (Image 9 - to be replaced) was the most obvious candidate for replacement and the replacement (Replacement for Image 9) was for me one of the strongest in the project. I agreed with my tutor that the image to be replaced was weak, in that that there were weaknesses apparent like the hands at work (a reason I included the image initially) didn't provide much interest. In contrast, its replacement provided the viewer with what I felt was an interesting insight into the smaller details of how the cardboard city was built and captured a good expression on the face of one of its builders.


   I have realised that the project was still not perfect but I felt the amendments I made did make a significant difference to the comprehensiveness of how the cardboard city was documented.