Post 12

This is the second image in my series of photos focusing on an old mill in Bradford.

This image sees the mill and its cooling tower silhouetted against a late winter late afternoon/early evening sky.

The first aspect about this image is the powerful silhouette, which gives much greater effect to the image and the psychological effect of the mill and the cooling tower towering over the image. The silhouette also adds another feeling to the photo, which is hard to describe. The stark contrast between light and dark in this photo very much reminds me of cinematic film or photographs taken when this mill would still have been in use, so the silhouetter, in a way, could suggest the age of the mill and the cooling tower - as in this photo, darkness is against a stark contrast with light.

The second aspect of this image is the psychological effect on the viewer because of the low angle that the photo was shot from. The towering effect of the mill and the cooling tower suggests, to me, that these buildings were used for industries that were once powerful and made sure that Britain was the workmanship of the world, at the time, in the industrial revolution, the engineering industries such as steelmelting, towered over everything else. The mill represents the cotton industry, while the cooling tower represents the more hardened industries such as steelmelting.

The third aspect of this photo would work better if there wasn't a new housing estate in the background, ruining the effect. The effect of the wild grass directly in front of the camera gives the effect that this is either in the middle of nowhere, so no attention has been given to the upkeep of the site, or that this is is in a heavily built-up area (which it is) and it is still being left to rot. Either way, the grass directly in front of the camera gives the impression that this site has not been looked after, probably because the current owners of the site don't wish to waste extra money and time contributing to the general upkeep of the site when the mill and cooling tower are probably going to be demolished in the near future anyway. It would be a pure waste of time.