Springboard Project

At the beginning of this project we were shown over 40 images in order to inspire and make us think about what we might present for our project based around the idea of objectivity and subjectivity. Looking at the images chosen for us I didn't find myself inspired, they were all great pieces, but they didn't give me ideas or strike at the thoughtful creative part of me. I started thinking about an exhibition had seen some weeks before; it had been playing on my mind for sometime. It was the Edgar martin’s exhibition "The Time Machine". When first seeing this exhibition I was instantly enthralled. The way they’re photographed is designed to draw you in, at first you are amazed by the whole thing, and then you start looking into it with the detail. They are like looking at two images and it makes it seem more real even though the spaces never looked like this. There is digital manipulation and artificial lighting. The time machine is a project looking at hydroelectric power stations around Europe. I liked this idea of taking a range of space made for the same purpose and photographing it, so I thought I might apply it to another space. Over the past few years I have

Been photographing spaces designed for people to be in yet without anyone in the photograph, so rather than going to places with restricted access such as power plants I decided to go somewhere more recognisable so that the viewer could have more recognition with the image. After much thinking I decided on the idea of swimming pools photographed as typologies. I started calling around and made an appointment to shoot at a swimming pool in Northolt. I chose it as I found it was a modern building and a newly built swimming pool.

I used a medium format camera to photograph the spaces as I wanted to capture as much detail and tonal range as possible while not facing the restrictions of large format. I also enjoy having a slow process, I’m quite an impatient person so when I slow my method down I force myself to make more considered images. I used a mixture of transparency and negative film, although I prefer the effects of transparency they can be more temperamental in certain lighting conditions so using the negative gives me general images which I can work from.

After the shoot I feel confident about being able to make a series of them work really well together. I felt the images I got from this first shoot where faithful to what I set out to capture, I photographed end to end, the corners and the middle looking to the other side. The light was extremely flat and ran throughout the whole place meaning I didn't have to change the camera settings. This insured that each image has the same aesthetic to each one. It was when setting up my second shoot that I realised the idea would have to be changed a bit.

 I found another swimming pool to photograph but when I got there I realised that this swimming pool wouldn't look anything like the other images. The problem was that there was only one swimming pool in each leisure centre and they were all different. I noticed the sports halls they had. There was little difference in them and the difference the had was the difference I was looking for.

I prefer these images to the ones taken originally, not just because the images can work as a series but also because the strangeness of the setting is pushed further. The rooms have names such as "group space 1" and "projectile hall". They are areas built for amusement and fun yet when empty they look so cold that it is difficult to imagine anyone actually enjoying him or herself in such a place.

This is the way I want my images to be seen on a wall, or if I was able to have them exactly how I would like each couple would be in it's own room with each one on a different wall.

Projectile hall looking north            Group space 1 looking north west      Group space 2 looking west

Projectile hall looking south            Group space 1 looking south east       Group space 2 looking east

I have titled the images firstly after the name of the rooms and secondly the direction the lens is facing when taken. I did this to introduce formality into the location adding to how strange it looks.

My images are designed to look at space in an objective way and draw out an unsettling feeling in the viewer. I am interested in space and the strangeness of it. Places built for convenience. Most of all I enjoy looking at what many people would see as the dull and mundane and photographing it, by doing this it forces a viewer to look at it and to consider the space in a new way, to see what it looks like photographed.