Critical Appraisal: The Urban Environment (300 words)

For my urban environment series I documented the process of development and have showed how humanity rebuilds, improves and changes their urban space, as I am interested in the idea of positive change and development in general.

Having changed my idea at a late stage, I did not have much influence other than my surroundings and how I perceived them but John Davies’ work documenting Britain’s industrialisation with a similar concept to my own would have most likely inspired me to document urban space in Britain like I have. An issue that could have arisen within this project would have been making sure each photograph compliments the others and they all work together. I’ve approached this by making each image correspond to the next as my series documents on topic and its change over time.

My photographic choices concerning the visual elements of the series were: to photograph in black and white which suits the topic more in my opinion; to use a large depth of field to include a lot of detail in my work because I wasn’t isolating anything in particular but photographing whole scenes; and to use the right angle for each image to showcase it best such as slightly elevated for the first image of wasteland and from a street level looking upwards for the middle image to show the scaffolding as I saw it.

For this project specifically I think I need to reflect upon managing my studies better and give myself the maximum amount of time to allow for changes. The most significant challenge in this unit was drawing inspiration from other work, as I seemed to simply perceive the urban space and visualise my photographs straight away so my work lacks input from others. However, I am happy with how my series works.

John Davies' work:

My Urban Series:

Urban Environment Project Update

Having failed to find good locations to shoot abandoned buildings I have changed my idea completely. If I had allowed myself more time I could have explored more and maybe gone and shot in a few places more than once between processing to make sure I got the shots I needed. I would have liked to do this because I liked my original idea and I feel it is possibly stronger than my current one.

I have decided to document the process of development and show how humanity rebuilds, improves and changes their urban space. Rather than just photographing a building that is decaying and dilapidated (like I would have before) or just photographing perfect architecture that either needs no improvement or has been improved; I will photograph the process which could be perceived as the ugly leading to the beauty: a before construction shot; a during construction shot; and an after construction shot.

At first my approach to this was going to be drawing inspiration from Bernd and Hilla Becher. I wanted to use a large format and correct the buildings from a straight on view and shoot in black and white. Then I decided against this angle when I found my first subject and wanted to take my photograph from a more interesting place with the contrast of the crossing lines and angles against the sky. I still shot at a larger depth of field to retain more detail.