Post 17

The 17th post in this series, will once again look at a photo of the top of the chimney tower silhouetted against the sky in the background.

This picture was taken towards the beginning to middle of winter, at sunset, to catch the look of a sunset. Some people might claim that it might be easier to photograph such an image at sunrise and then falsely claim it was a sunset job, but most people would be able to tell that this photo was definitely taken at sunset.

Again, the silhouette provides a stark contrast between black and white, giving off impressions that the image could have been taken in the past, in an age when there was only black and white photography.

Also, as mentioned previously in another photograph, there is a rather interesting effect with the clouds breaking up and the top of the chimney, which can give off a good effect of smoke still rising from the chimney, like it once did.

The way that this is framed is to have the main subject directly in the centre, while having the old mill and the sky around the edge, not distracting the viewer but giving a sense of place and time.

Post 16

This is another in my series of photographs of an old, disused mill in Bradford and is another one that compares the old industrialised way of living with the modern capitalist society.

Of all the photos that use the LIDL supermarket to contrast with the mill and cooling tower, this one has to be the most striking and most effective.

As I said in my previous post, the fact that the LIDL signage is much closer to the camera suggests that the industrial revolution, when the mill and cooling tower were probably built is far in the past and that capitalism has taken over, while old buildings of local or historical interest are flattened to make way for big businesses with no consideration for those that want to see the building kept, either because it's old and they happen to be interested in architecture or the building may have some kind of sentimental value.

The angle that this image is taken from makes it all the more obvious that an economy based on idustry is well and truly in the past, although it does still have a very large workforce today. The main tool in the image used for creating this feeling or thought is the angle of the LIDL sign placed closest to the camera. The camera has to look up at the sign at sich an angle that the sign looks taller than the mill and the cooling tower, the fact that this LIDL sign is taller than the cooling tower is the opposite to what I stated in my previous post. In that I suggested that that photo was for those who know that one day industrialisation will return with a vengeance. This photo seems to take it from a different point of view: thet socialism or comunism is definetly not returning.

Post 15

The next in my series of blogs based around photographs of a mill here in Bradford mainly focuses on what the redevelopment site is being redeveloped for.

During the 1980s, thanks to the policies of the Margaret Thatcher government, there was a significant change in the British economy, with a move away from the old industrialised economy that we were reliant on to a "service" economy, such as services and businesses like LIDL, a smaller-sized supermarket chain. This photo is one of the photos in this selection that represents this.

In this photo, the larger chimney denotes that for many socialists and Northern employers, one day industrialisation will return and triumph over the shadow left by greedy capitalist corporations like LIDL. However, the fact that the mill and its cooling tower are further away from the camera than the LIDL store, to me, means that the old industrialised businesses are in the past, with capitalism now here to stay.

Post 14

The fourth image in my series of blogs based on photos I have taken is also another image of the Bradford mill that I photographed.

This is another silhouette shot featuring the cooling tower, although this time the photo was taken at much less of an angle. This is so it doesn't give the impression of being "powerful", instead it is taken from how a member of the general public would have seen it in the past or the present, the image is much less angled and the photo is taken from the other side of the main road which runs alongside the old mill.

Another point to not in this image is the use of clouds as a background to the image, as I think it adds to the effect of "smoke" in the sky, which is what would have billowed out of that chimney many years ago when the mill was still in use.

I think that the framing is done in such a way that even though there is enough room round the edges to give enough information of the time, place etc, the viewer's attention is drawn immediately to the chimney with the sunshine attempting to break through in the background.

Post 13

Like the previous image, this photo is of the site of the mill silhouetted against a late afternoon/early evening sky towards the end of winter, except that this time, the camera is focused purely on the cooling tower, rather than on the whole site.

Also, like the previous image, many features of the previous photograph are seen again here in this image. The silhouette of the cooling tower, for example, was seen in the previous photo. Also, this image, like the previous image, includes a weed or dry grass to suggest that the area that this cooling tower is in hasn't had any upkeep, probably since the mill closed.

The framing of the image is done in such a way as to keep the viewer's attention on the cooling tower and its silhouetted effect, while still managing to give a good idea of the surroundings. I think (although I personally can't see this part of the photo very clearly) that there is a new housing estate to the bottom left of the image, with some smaller dilapidated buildings on the right, suggesting that this cooling tower is located in an are of redevelopment or "regeneration". This gives a sense of place, which can be essential to the viewer to provide a background to this image in their mind, and also probably to help them appreciate the photograph. The sky in the background gives a sense of time, although some might say the image was taken at dawn, most would definetly say it was photographed at sunset and the weed gives a sense of the type of surroundings which the cooling tower is in.

Extra objects seen around the edge of the cooling tower, while also providing some more interest to the casual viewer are essential to give the photo a sense of place and time and to add other things like to suggest that the area is dilapidated but undergoing redevelopment

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.

Post 11

I was supposed to take some fresh images of my own for the following blog posts, but due to unforeseen circumstances (involving the human equivalent of pond life), I am not able to bring those photos to the wonderful world of the internet, so I am having to use some images I took for a previous piece of coursework last semester.

The theme of these photographs was old buildings and architecture, mainly focusing on this old, disused mill here in Bradford.

This first image is a shot of the mill and its surroundings how it would have appeared something like 50 years ago. While the older terraced shops you can see in the photo are obviously still there, there is significant regeneration going on in this area, so at one point, this building would have been surrounded by buildings like this.

This image is one of a number of these images that shows how the mill is integrated into the lives of the locals, because the style of the mill was similar or the same as the terraced shops before they had pebbledash placed all over the front of them. Also, the mill would have been built with the terraced shops and houses built around it. Many inner-cities of the time were built like this, with the houses and other local amenities built around the mill, which would have been in the centre of all the action. It was where most of the people who lived on that estate would have worked. They would have left school at the age of 14 and gone straight into the (dangerous) workhouse.

The framing of the image suggests to me that the buildings in the foreground are the buildings that are still in use and are staying for the foreseeable future, whereas the mill is disused and so it fades more and more into the past as time goes on and its demolition gets nearer, and as the mill is further in the distance in this photo, that suggests that soon the mill will be in the distant past as well.