Assignment • Rationale

For this series of photographs, I intended to echo the work of Nicky Bird, and overlay the images I had sourced from the archive simplistically over the top of my images I had captured. I had researched the work of Nicky Bird in depth, looking at her reasoning behind her project, as well as how she edited the images together as a set. Through my series of photographs, I planned to challenge the misconception of the local area constantly changing through regeneration, and show the similarities that still remain through the architecture of the area. When my work was presented alongside my fellow classmates images at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, I hoped my work would make people look twice at their surroundings, and notice that although work is being carried out on the local area, some of the older buildings still remain as a figure of beauty and heritage.

I visited the location without my DSLR the first time, just armed with my iPhone to take images to reflect on when I got back to the archive. I wanted to see what the area looked like now, just so I could have a better knowledge of what I was looking for when I revisited the archive to collate my images. In hindsight, this was a good idea, as I was pleasantly surprised that the area had not changed much, and I mounded my final idea around that concept.

Editing the photographs was the challenging part about this brief, but rewarding at the same time. I used the archive images for reference when I shot my final images, but because of the bad weather condition, I felt like I didn’t have enough time to make sure they were spot on in camera. Therefore, I had to do a lot of postproduction to make sure the images lined up correctly and looked professional. Looking back, this was not a huge error, as I brushed up on my Photoshop skills that I had been neglecting in the past few months. It was also a reminder of how much I enjoyed editing photographs and has given me the well-needed boost to go out and take more photographs of landscapes and cityscapes. My favourite photograph was the photograph I have included as part of the group exhibition, just because of how powerful the concept behind the image is, and how well the archive image compares to the modern day.

Every module does not run as smoothly as anticipated, and given the chance I would have done certain things differently. I would have spent more time visiting the location, and constructing a better view of the area before photographing the buildings. Although not a vital error, I feel it would have given me a better understanding of Eccles as a town, better than looking the areas history up online.