It’s time for Abstract Architecture.
To support my application to Wolverhampton University I was invited to submit a portfolio of work, I’ve got tonnes of photos that I could have added but was advised to keep it to twenty slides maximum. As a result many photos of motorsport, aircraft, trees, landscapes and other subjects jsut had to be left out. The one thing I was sure I wanted to include were some photos of buildings that I’ve taken over the years, but not jsut buildings, parts of buildings that have you thinking what part of a building it is..
ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE #1
The first image I chose to include in this category is a photo I took on holiday in New York 2019. It’s of the Guggenheim Museum designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and shows some of the levels on the seemingly endless circular spiral floor as it heads to the top of the building.
I spent hours in this building, first taking in all of the amazing art on display and then spending time with the camera focussing on the magnificent structure that was available to all to just wander in wonder.. I was spellbound in this amazing architectural feat of construction and was taking photos of the unusual and organic shapes that were all-enveloping. The photo above shows the rising circular floor on four different levels with a woman in the centre of the image waving at a family member further up the structure.
I particularly love that there are multiple people on each of the levels except the one inhabited by the waver and I marvelled at all of the art that was being investigated simultaneously by citizens of the wider world.
The above photo shows another view of this museum that I was entranced by showing the upper levels and the marvellous atrium roof. It’s not included in the portfolio I submitted but was close to being included. It’s abstract enough to make you wonder just what this structure might be.
ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE #2
My second choice to fit in the portfolio was an image of the Chapter House Ceiling in York Minster.
As the secretary of the Caterpillar Photographic Society I organised a trip to York for a few members where we walked the city streets in an evening before going on a daytime ramble through the Shambles and York Minster among other notable places.
The image above was captured using Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) with three photos 1 and 1/3 stops apart. These were then treated to some post processing in the Photomatix software and merged together to capture the highlights and shadows along with the midtones to give a fully illuminated image. It was quite dark in the Chapter House and there was a beautiful choir rehearsing for a service so I was careful to be respectful and take as little time as possible to get the photo. The photo makes me happy as I feel it’s flattened out the domed ceiling of the building into a flat canvas, much the same a world map is created from a globe.
The details and light through the stained glass windows make this image for me, the one big drawback that irks me, just a little, is the solid brick window and how it affects the symmetry of the photo but I’ve got used to that now.
The other issue I could have had with this picture was that at the time It was taken I was using AEB an awful lot and then abusing the sliders in the merging software to give me some radical results, not nice results but different. I feel that I restrained myself on this particular image, where in many cases I destroyed an image by upping the power of the effects in Photomatix.
ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE #3
This is the third image in the Abstract Architecture themed section of my portfolio and shows an upward view of the Birmingham Library building’s front. It’s covered with an intricate pattern of overlapping circles and when I was looking for an interesting angle for a shot I stepped underneath the outer jacket of steelwork and peered skywards.
The repeating pattern and the intensity of the sky in the right hand side of the picture and the reflection of it in the left side are what makes the image for me. This is the first photo where I used the upwards aspect to get an unusual shot and I’ve used it since, many times, as you’ll see shortly.
ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE #4
Riverbank House in London is featured in the next image and the different levels of the structure caught my eye, much the same as the Guggenheim photos earlier in this post. It’s more obviously a photo of a building and the balconies that surround each floor but the angle that I took the shot at gave it futuristic tower block type appearance to me. I was in two minds whether to desaturate and remove all of the yellow colour but it left the image bland and lacking some contrast.
This was taken on one of my wanders around the city of London when my family were off watching a musical show leaving me to geek out on all things architecture and street photos. I have filled many hours of such meanderings around London, Manchester, Liverpool, Chester, Leeds city centres and always enjoy seeing people walking past with their faces glued to their phones for the latest Love Island news, when there’s all of this wonderful scenery to be inhaled.
ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURE #5
The last photo in this section and the whole portfolio is one of my strongest images from recent times. During a photo walk around London on the Euro Cup Final day in July 2021 there were multiple photos of people in football jerseys enjoying their day out and later in the day as I made my way to London Bridge Tube Station I came across a building called “No. 6 More London Place“, it looked like a set from a Robocop movie with black and red glass, steel work and lights shining around.
Using the old favoured “Look up” mantra I found myself under the front of this splendid building and spotted the angular delights captured below.
The image above is right up my alley, it’s a straight up view of the front of the building and contains a slatted top and sides with reflections in the black glass with a bar of lights thrown in for good measure. I took out the colour from this image, because it was mainly black and white already but there was some yellow colour emitting from the lights on the black bar.
I love this type of image as it is truly abstract and unless you’d seen the building before you’d never guess where or what it was. It reminds me of something from an Arthur C Clarke based novel or film from this angle and I think that it gives it some possibility of being an image from the future brought back o the present day. Now I know that sounds a bit wacky but hey, that’s my opinion. Doesn’t mean it’s right, just my thoughts…
CLOSING COMMENTS
Well that covers the 20 slides of images with a few bonus images in there for good luck that went to make up my photo portfolio as submitted to Wolverhampton University School Of Art to support my application to join the BA Hons Course in Photography.
To submit the whole portfolio I added each image to a single PowerPoint slide set, saved it as a PPT and also a PDF as requested before sending it up to the uploader.
I was waiting to see if the portfolio led to an interview with the course staff to ascertain why I chose these images but I’ve had notice this week that my application has been accepted and I’ve been offered a place on the course.
Whether the portfolio had much to do with the subsequent offer, I’ll probably never know but I like to think that this is the first step in getting back on the learning ladder.
When I begin the six year, part time degree course I’ll continue to add posts to this blog to record for posterity what I’ve been going through and maybe look back on it in the future. Thanks for reading and hopefully you’ll see some more posts soon.
Cheers.
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