As soon as I knew this project was about earth stories I had to find a way of incorporating flowers into my imagery. Flowers are something that has always fascinated me in photography but i knew flowers alone weren't a story. I had to find a narrative that i could tell through a set of images, the flowers were just a small part in a bigger picture.
My idea was to photograph The New Palace Theatre and the Genesis building. I planned to compare and contrast the two buildings and how they both have living walls.
During this project I did a lot of location photo shoots. I used a selection of different lenses depending on the type of image I wanted to take. I learnt how to shoot good macro shots and controlled depth of field well.
I have collected lots of research on my chosen location and its historical background. By using a mixture of primary and secondary research I was able to understand peoples views as well as formulate my own opinions.
One of the main issues I faced with this project and location photography in general was getting around the places I wanted to photograph. For example I would really have liked to have done some beach photography but with it being the type of location it is, it can be tricky to access from my wheelchair.
Another problem I had was not being able to use a tripod, from my wheelchair it is really difficult to get close enough to the tripod. There are attachments that you can purchase that clip on to wheelchairs but they are very expensive.
When analysing what I thought would be my final shoot I realised I was missing that one main image that would connect all the others together. I decided to go on one last shoot at The New Palace Theatre to get that one perfect shot. This time I used a wide angle lens to enable me to get as much of the theatre in shot as possible.
Technically I did not face many issues. The main issue was not being able to use a tripod as this made getting the perfect composition a little difficult. I had a few problems getting the right angle to allow me to get the whole theatre in the frame. To help resolve this I used a wide angle lens, this allowed me to position the camera low and angle it upwards.
On this last shoot, although the weather was good and it was nice and bright it did bring its problems. I struggled with lens flare due to very bright sunlight, to try and reduce this I experimented with different angles and positions of the camera, although this helped I could not eliminate them completely.
I have produced a set of four final images. The main establishing shot is of The New Palace Theatre, the rest are a mixture of close ups that document the detail of the living walls and elements of the theatre. My favourite of all the images is the dance academy sign. I love the contrast of the bold metal against the bright sky. I also really like the composition of this image as the sign is in the centre of the frame. You can still see part of the theatre attached to the sign as well as some of the plants in the top left corner.
I have decided to keep the editing of my final images as minimal as possible my project is about appreciating The New Palace Theatre and helping raise awareness to get it restored. The other thing that influenced my style of minimal editing was my artist research into Dom Moore and Alec Soth. Both these artists photograph in a dead pan style, what you see is what was actually there in the original shot. I increased the brightness and exposure to some of my images as on the first shoot it was dull weather that made the images look extremely flat. I also dodged and burnt certain areas of a few images to help bring out detail.
In conclusion I am very happy with how my final images have turned out. I think I have linked my ideas well with my research and have gained new skills such as location photography, how different lenses give various effects to images and in particular, how to change colour photographs in to black and white without making the image look flat. I hope my images will raise awareness of the beauty of The New Palace theatre and maybe help it on its road to restoration.
Images © Sophie Whale