AMJ PhotographyBlog

8th June 2011

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Police Warning

I recieved a warning from the police to stop exploring the derelict building of Greatham ‘because its dangerous’. -_-“

16th May 2011

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Evaluation

“Not only does a camera see monocularly from a definitive vantage point; it also creates a hierarchy in the depictive space by defining a single plane of focus. This plane, which is usually parallel with the picture plane, gives emphasis to part of the picture and helps to distil a photograph’s subject from its content.”

When I first read my quote I was unsure of where it was trying to direct me, but after picking out the key words in the sentence it lead me to finding somewhere which had very mixed light patterns, somewhere I could possibly manipulate the light to how I want it (but I was being awkward and didn’t want to use to studio). The quote I was given was very flexible and it could lead you onto the idea of anything, but this is what I came up with.

The idea I had in mind was based around a horror theme with dark rooms and small or mixed amounts of light because I like scary things! This led me to the idea of finding a derelict house or some sort of larger facility if it was possible.

I spent a lot of time searching the internet and a large number of derelict building websites,  the only relatively good derelict buildings I came across were either way down south in London or up on the boarders of Scotland. Bad times.

I decided to ask my parents if they knew about any derelict buildings around Teesside, they were of no use. I asked a few friends and people around CCAD, which lead me to my first trip to a derelict farmhouse in Stockton – Teesside. When I got to the building it was very bad news there was no way into the building as all the entrances were all bricked up, even the upstairs windows! I took what film shots I could while I was there, but nothing of great use came from it.

The second trip I made was with a fellow student on the same course and a trusty friend, we travelled to a village called Greatham and there we found a large warehouse and a complex building compound. There was a small number of entrances but we took the one which seemed to be used most regularly. I was very surprised when we first walked through as skaters and roller-bladers had adapted the bottom floor with pieces of scrap wood and metal they found around the building and made ramps for them pull tricks off of. Without going into great detail about each room we explored and photographed, overall I found the building and warehouse amazing, although the place was literally falling apart, in my eyes every aspect of it was beautiful.

I made a number of trips back to the warehouse on separate occasions one of the trips was made at midnight, which was very fearful and fun. The first trip I made when using film I forgot to take a light meter and had to improvise / guess the aperture setting on my camera, but I took multiple shots in one place each with different aperture settings. Most of the shots I took were half good half bad, some of the shots that turned out bad in the contact sheet I was upset about so I made another trip back with a different group of people. Unfortunately the trip didn’t go to plan as the battery in my camera died! After considerate thought after the trip I said to myself I would go back but I decided against it and worked with what I had, which didn’t turn out too badly.

After several hours spent in the darkroom processing prints I came to a healthy conclusion of 3 final black and white film prints, I was very happy with the outcome of the quality of them, especially after all the time I put into them.

After careful thought of condensing my 300+ Digital SLR photographs to a small selection of 2 final digital prints, I came across a minor shenanigan of trying to get the digital prints to the same paper and print size as my black and white photographs (9.5 x 12 inches). Eventually I had to resort to printing them on A3 sized fibre based paper (not exactly you’re cheaper alternative) and cut them down to size!

Working on a blog was a new experience for me, I have never made a blog before until now. Personally I found it different but in a way I didn’t prefer it to having a sketchbook. I feel that sketchbooks are a lot better to refer back to and present to someone say in a job interview or simply just to show off! I probably won’t use a Blog to record an assignment but maybe I would create a Blog to let other photographers and friends or followers what I am working on or planning to do next in my stages of life or in the stages of my career.

In conclusion I really enjoyed being given a very free and flexible quote with a good amount of time to do it within, seen as I had problems finding a suitable location. I don’t it was necessary to replace a sketchbook with a computer / internet based sketchbook but one good thing I discovered about using a Blog was finding a strong number of professional, in-famous photographers and using their work for my research and to relate to what I was trying to achieve. Overall I am very happy with my final prints and looking forward to the second year in studying a BA (Hons) Degree in Photography at CCAD Hartlepool.

16th May 2011

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Final Images

I eventually decided on which photographs i was going to use for my final pictures, i decided on using 3 Black and White Film with 2 Digital SLR Prints. They are all sized at 9.5 x 12” including the Digital (which was a bit of a mess on, but worth it!), i am going to use them in my presentation tomorrow and hand them in on the day in a presentation box :)

13th May 2011

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Research Info

I have specifically chosen to base my research on in-famous but very talented Derelict Photographers/ Explorers of Tumblr, rather than the ‘Big Names’ in Photography. I chose to do this because I feel that you can find photographers/explorers with a better eye for a photograph and more of a sense of searching with the same technical qualities as a professional, famous photographer.

6th May 2011

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Derelict building find!

Found an awesome abandoned warehouse by Hartlepool in a village called Greatham. Took a good few hours to explore the entire site inside-out. Found an interesting basement but couldn’t explore it further due to flooding (n)! might buy myself a dingey and float around down there, hopefully i dont sink its pretty deep down there.

All in all, it is a great find and worth using for my derelict building photography assignment black and white film and digital SLR.