The theme for this documentary brief for me was about documenting the tall buildings in London but primarily south of the river. I think that this project was an interesting project to undertake because I am interested in architecture and the many different forms of buildings. I think the project was also interesting because we are in a stage of mass urbanisation and thus wanted to document the buildings that are in London at this current time with the knowledge that within 5-10 years there will be many more of these structures.
The part of the project I enjoyed the most was going out and discovering new and interesting buildings and taking photos of them. This gave me a greater knowledge of my local area and wider surroundings.
A new technique I used in this project was architectural photography. Although I am enamoured with the aesthetics of these structures I have never gone out to shoot them because the town I live has no tall buildings.
The main photographers I researched for this project where Bernd & Hilla Becher who introduced me to typology which is a photographic technique where you take photographs of things that in themselves aren’t neccisarily interesting but it is more about the study of form of the subject (which in my case is tall buildings) in a repetitive style.
These photographers have influenced my work because this is the technique I have used and the way in which my work will be displayed which is in a typography grid.
I feel that the most successful part of my project has to be the typography I like the way that the grid has turned out, I think that the lines in the image are clean and the forms of the buildings bounce off each other nicely. I think the grid works well because it makes you look at the buildings and pick out differences between them such as the purpose of the building, the age, the design, the building materials and so on. I have enjoyed shooting for a typography and is a technique which not only found effective but have also enjoyed.
I think that my prints have come out clean I think that the tones and colours have been replicated nicely. They are also pretty sharp and I can see very little to no grain.
A few problems I encountered with my project is because it is winter the daylight is limited and changes very quickly, This led to inconsistencies in the lighting which made the series feel perhaps a little disjointed.
I learnt from these by trying to shoot at similar times of day and under similar lighting conditions.
This project also made me aware of the scale of gentrification taking place in London at this current time. Seeing multimillion pound flats/skyscrapers going up in or on the edge of lower income areas which I see as a form of ‘social cleansing’. For a follow up project I’d like to do a documentary project with the residents of the areas being affected by these changes.
