Appraisal

  Critical Appraisal: City

For this part of our environment project we had to create a series of three images that were based on the city.  I decided to focus my project on World War II and the progression and restoration of London since the blitz. 

Research

After visiting the War Museum in London  and seeing Don McCullin's and Frances Torres's exhibitions there I researched further into both of there work. I felt that McCullin's exhibition 'Shaped by War' did not directly inspire my photographic choices as he photographs people during the war but his work however did inspire my concept. Both Mcullin and Torres use there images as a mark of respect and for preservation of a memory which is what I hoped to achieve though my own series of images. 

I decided to find three images of London during the blitz and pastiche than. I looked at housing and smaller areas but eventually chose the three images below of well know larger places in the center of London. I felt that by choosing these larger and more public ares it would be representing and commemorating more of the thousands that died in the war as apposed to photographing one house and being more specific.  

St Paul's Cathedral 

Tower Bridge

St Thomas Hospital

After deciding on the images above I found that Alvin Langdon Coburns had photographed some of the exact same places. I analysed his photographic technique and found that he took inspiration from Whistler's paintings and has achieved the same soft and misted effect that can be seen in the paintings. I also discussed what photographic choices I felt that I should make for my own work as both coburns style and a sharp more modernised style of image would work.  

I found Joel Meyerowitz's project that documented the clean up of ground zoro after 911. These images (as seen on the left) combine both the effects of an attack and the positive element of a united front and progression. The image on the right is a collaboration of both Charles Marville's photography of Paris and the image below it of the city after Haussmann rebuilt taken for a magazine. These images are very similar to that of my own project as they pastiche the original image to show the same place but after its restoration.

Contact sheet

Above is the contact sheet from my final shoot. They are quite dark on the contact sheet making them hard to see but at first I chose the lower left image of St Paul's Cathedral as one of my final images. I chose this one as I preferred the positions of the two men that happened to be standing in the foreground of the image. Once I started printing I realised that the white line in the sky that can be seen above was actually an issue with the photograph so used the image above instead. This image is practically the same just with slightly different positioning of the people and no white area. 

Although they are upside down on the contact sheet i chose the lower image of Tower Bridge as less of the surface on which the camera on is featured. This could be easily cropped out when printing and by choosing this one I would manage to preserve more of the main image. 

I took two images of the modern are of the hospital but did not feel that it was as relevant to my concept of restoration and preservation so chose the lower image of an old section of the hospital.

Final images

I am pleased with all three of my final images and as I think that I have managed to pastiche the original war images to the best of my ability. The most important part for me was camera position which I tried to be as accurate as possible with, trying to measure with the eye how much of the bridge for example was viable and from what angle. If I was just trying to achieve a regular set of black and white images I would have tried to achieve the same contract etc in each but in this case I have tried to mimic the original prints. This has lead to them all looking different. It can be seen on my contact sheet that my images were quite dark which meant that I created more work for myself in the print room trying to correct what I had no got right when shooting. This was my only main issue.

City : Charles Marville

Charles Marville

Paris before and after Haussmann:

The images below are from an article is 'The Figaro Magazine'. They Have combined old images that were taken by Charles Marville and new images taken of the same area by modern photographers. The article is about the rebuilding of Paris after the damage done since the revolution in 1789. The French civil planner Haussmann was hired by Napoleon III to modernize Paris and make it it a safer, cleaner and more appealing place city. I felt that these images were the most relevant out of all of those that I have researched as they actually pastiche images of areas in the capital city that were once destroyed. This has been done here to show the development and improvement of the city after Haussmann. 

The image above is of the street Soufflot in 1877 .  The first image was taken by Charles Marville and the second the editions of the Mécène and Gilles Leimdorfer for The Figaro Magazine. The second image is an accurate pastiche of the first and this is what I am hoping to achieve in my project. The development of the city can been seen by choosing an original image of a destroyed area which is also what I have chosen to do.

These image were taken by the same photographers and are taken in the same way just in a different area. They have also chosen to show development by having the more modern image in colour. I am undecided if this is what i would like to do as I may wish to pastiche the image as close to the original as possible including it being in black and white.

Environment: City (War)

(Some of the information and images below have already been posted on my blog as this was my original idea for my last project but discovered that it was more suited to the city theme. I felt that I should re post it so that all of my research was together and it is clear where my ideas have come from.)

Ideas

-Firstly I started by thinking about change. This is a very broad concept to be looking at but was a good starting point as it got me thinking about change throughout the world and our own country.


-At first when I thought of change I was drawn to the idea of development. London seemed the best place as it is always developing, is close so would be easy to get to to photograph and there are many interesting areas that could be suitable to photograph.


-I found by looking at development that I just ended up researching the most common buildings in London that are frequently photographed. This lost my interest as I hope to create images with a story behind them and not just post card prints.

- I started typing London - 1980, 1960 etc until I reached 1940 which caught my eye. This was during the second world war and London was the main target of the blitz. London looked so different when up in smoke and I find the historical aspect quite exciting.


-Inspired by these images and my first pastiche task in this project I have decided that I want to find photographs that were taken of buildings and areas that were damaged during the blitz, go to the same places now and photograph what is there now. I hope to take thie image in a similar way but obviously it will not always be possible to be accurate as much has changed over the years so I may just have to photograph what is there now.

World War II


I chose to look at buildings that were affected by World War II for a few reasons. The main reason was that it was the last War that took place in England and therefore the most recent. I hoped that the fact that it was the most recent would mean that there was more photographic documentation than there would have been from previous wars. Another reason is that I have always found the second world war of great interest and is a topic that you study from a young age.

The main bomb raids on London and other large cities were between 1940 and 1941 which is referred to as the blitz.The main areas that were hit during this period were London, Liverpool, Hull, Manchester, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Nottingham, Southampton, Sheffield and Swansea. I chose to look for buildings and areas that were bombed in London because as the capital city it suffered the most. There were a high number a civilian casualties and after further research found that 29,890 Londoners died over this period and another 50,507 were admitted to hospital.

Whilst walking through London I cam across this war memorial along side the Themes. Although this was not that relevant to my research of buildings it made me think about what I was hoping to put across through my photographs as the collection will have no relevance or meaning if they are just a pastiche of someone else's image. although there is an element of looking at how London may have developed since the war I want to find areas that still remain in some way the same. I feel it would be a tragic message to show a house that was bombed and then a modern image of perhaps nothing being there at all. To me that would put forward the though that it is now forgotten as if the people that once lived there never existed. This means that when it comes to choosing old war photos to pastiche I must make sure that I carefully research what is currently in that exact area. I could also approach the image research in two different way, either find images of homes so that the images are more personal or a wider area that could tell the story of the thousands that died throughout London. Either way I want my final images to show the buildings or areas as similar as possible to how they were in the original photos but restored almost as a symbol of respect to those that were effected. 

Bombed London

I looked for photographs from World War 2 in the 1940's of areas that were effected by the bombing. It is easy to find images of destroyed areas however there were specific things that I was looking for. I needed images of buildings that I could find the address or atleast most of the address for or it would be impossible for me to find. This criteria lead to to a lot of dead ends when looking for images.

I also need to find images that would be possible to mimic. If the photos have been taken from a birds eye view or are obviously taken from a higher point it is unlikely that I would be able to achieve this.

I am planning to use google map and the internet in general to try and see what the places that I have found in these photographs looks like now as they may not be worth shooting or housing etc may no longer exist there.


Below are a collection of images that I have found that hopefully are suitable. I still need to research deeper but have found addresses or atleast area name for each image.

East India Docks, Blackwall

England London New Malden Cleveland Road

St Pauls Cathedral

 Tower Bridge

London, St Thomas's Hospital

Teddington, Argyle road, TW11 8RU

7 holborn circus London

Environment: Alvin Langdon Coburn

Alvin Langdon Coburn

I found these images below of Alvin Langdon Coburns work all taken in London. I managed to find tree images of the exact same places that I am going to Photograph for my final collection of images. All three images were taken between 1909 and 1910 which which is long before the war time images that I am going to pastiche as they are from the late 30's/ early 40's. 

It has been said that his romantic cityscapes of London were inspired but the paintings of James McNeill Whistler as shown below. Coburn used a soft focus lens in his early work which helped recreate this soft misted effect that can be seen in Whistlers work. This could be something to keep in mind when choosing my own lens depending on how accurately I wish to follow the three images I am going to pastiche and what lens I think that they may have used for their images. However I could approach it in a different way by having the images were sharp and detailed to show the buildings as it they are in their modern and developed state. 



James McNeill Whistler

London Bridge, 1909

St Paul's, from the corner, 1909

The Tower Bridge, London, 1910