For this assignment I need to photograph five or six buildings and use images that will best describe how that building is used.
I work in a large purpose built office block, which I considered to be a good place to start.
Capital House was built Six years ago and the top floor was soon occupied by the insurance broker I work for. Having asked permission to photograph it I set about taking various photographs of the different areas. The floor is divided into several small offices, and then a main area where most of the staff work.
This photograph shows part of the main body of the office, where desks are grouped in fours with dividers between the two sets of twos.
The second building I have chosen is an old one. L Jays Attic is an Aladdin's cave with plenty of treasures to be discovered.This small shop is packed to the rafters and the owner Lisa has made full use of every inch of available space.
Down stairs mainly houses Lisa stock of comic strip product from old comics to cushions and upcycled furniture produced by Lisa. The shop with all its little knocks and cranny's lends its self to all of this. Along the stair wall the space is used by Lisa to make the cushions and cover the furniture she sells in her shop.
As I have said every bit of space is used to its best advantage.
Above is some of the comic hero merchandise Lisa makes herself.
Even the stairs and landing spaces are used to display photographs and pictures,
going on to the landing there are dresses hanging and little alcoves used to display shoes and bags.
The final two rooms up stairs the first and the smaller of the two rooms is filled with vintage memorabilia and the second with preloved clothing and accessories.
I wanted to keep the use of flash to a minimum on these photographs using instead a higher iso, although I did use the flash for the last photograph and the comic merchandise.
I found this a fascinating place to visit the owner was very happy for me to take the photographs and also the two ladies in the last photograph were quite happy to be included when I explained what I was doing.
The main difficulty I found was trying to get as much of the rooms into the photograph as possible, as the shop is quite small it was challenging at times.
Building three is Maidstone museum, originally established in 1858 the museum has last few years had a modern extension added. Before it became the museum the original building was called Chillington Manor and over the first forty years of its time as a museum it under went many transformations as extensions were added.
The top photograph shows the old and the new of the outside, although the extension is very modern somehow it works ,partly I think because the softness of the gold coloured frontage.
This is the hallway this is a wide space easily accessible for people to walk around, there are several door ways off and the twisting staircase is fascinating for children who want to know where it goes. There is a set of paw prints at the foot of the stairs to encourage children to see where they lead. One thing I did notice is that there is plenty of things for children to do and the museum has been laid out with children in mind.
Photographs three and four show what I mean about accessibility, the glass cases are mostly down to the ground although in the older part some are at waist level, which would make viewing difficult for children and anyone in a wheelchair. The room with the clothing has an alcove near the man in the photograph where people can try on various items of clothing across the ages.
The final photograph is back where I started from this time taken from the other side and standing on the staircase.
This shows where the old and the new meet, again note the paw prints on the floor for children to follow, the light is better from this angle. I also think the ways the stairs are built allow people to stand there and view below. When the house was originally built the children of the gentry of the house would have loved looking through the spindles of the stairs to see who was coming into the house.
My final building is a local community centre. I have tried to find out more about the building but with no luck. I would say the hall was built in the 1970's or maybe 1980's it is quite dated looking.
The first photograph is the entrance hall, as you can see there have been modifications done over the years with the addition of the ramps to allow access to the hall for everyone. The area is very bright and spacious it makes an ideal waiting place for mums picking children up from various activities held in the main hall.
Photographs two and three are the main hall from different ends. I noticed how the light changed the look of the photograph depending which end I was photographing it from. The hall is used by a cross section of people for many things from a nursery school to the local boxing club, tonight it was being used for a dance class and the vast clear space lends its self well to this. Wedding receptions and parties are often held in this hall and the next photograph will show the area that is used as a bar and also serving food from.
This room again has plenty of space and this is the room used by the nursery school during the week. The long shutters show the area where food is served from. I was unable to photograph the kitchen as the door was closed on my visit.
Overall this hall does what it was designed to do. Its a community hall or village hall to be used by the community. Kemsley is one of the more troubled areas of the town but its evident that the hall is well used and very much part of their lives.
Finally I have finished this assignment, now to send it to my tutor for comment but in between times its back to the next section.
Tutor feedback.
Overall I was pleased with the feedback, although I need to add to the assignment as I have only done four buildings instead of five and I have included more photographs than I need of each building.
I was also told one of my photographs in the L'Jays Attic section is over exposed slightly and I need to use the burn tool to adjust. Having tried the doge and burn tool I decided on reflection that I would crop that section out and in fact cropped the whole picture to produce what I consider to be a stronger and not so 'busy' image.
I am going to re visit this assignment during the course of the next two sections as I have a couple of ideas of places to photograph but I need to see if I can get permission, One of the ideas I have is some disused police cells in a Victorian building which is still used by the police today, hence I will need to see if i can get permission.
Unfortunately I was unable to obtain permission to photograph in the cells so I finally settled on Leeds Castle somewhere I have already photographed but fits in well.
As well as being open to the general public it is possible to hire the castle for various functions including getting married. It has also been used for many important meetings including the Northern Island peace talks in 2004.
I have taken just a couple of photographs from the inside.
The first is the library which t is very cosy looking, it is very easy to see how someone could pick a book and sit happily reading it in this room.
The second room is the dining room the soft colours were the reason I included this, although it is a formal room the colour keeps it from being too stark.
The final room is the queens bathroom, it is very different from anything we have today. The tub would have been filled by hand and the fire would have been lit for warmth.
The final photograph is the small inner courtyard, a beautiful small outdoor space protected by the castle walls
The final photograph is the small inner courtyard, a beautiful small outdoor space protected by the castle walls
It is quite easy to see how Leeds castle is classed as the loveliest castle in the world.
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