Strand 1
Street photography - Berlin 2017
My first idea was to try and capture a sense of the modern day in response to the 1950s photography which conveyed the essence the time. To do this, I tried to look for people with technology, modern clothing or accessories- and a lot of colour.
Strand 2-
Architecture
Brutalist architecture flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descending from the modernist architectural movement of the early 20th century. 'Brutalism' is a French term derived from 'Beton Brut', or raw concrete. This term was produced for the French architecture, created by Le Corbusier and others like him. From then on, Brutalism was a term created as a way of classifying this type of architecture. This architecture is categorised by the large size of the buildings and also the use of concrete structures and materials.
For this response, I went into central London to take photographs of concrete structures. I visited the south bank and walked around the area photographing brutalist buildings.
The Barbican
Barbican 2
Edits
Simon Phipps
The photographer Simon Phipps focuses on fine art and is based in the UK. He has captured a wide range of images and subjects. Phipps' responses to brutalism are unique and he portrays brutalist architecture in a sensitive, realistic and distinctive way. The photographer has spent 15 years experimenting and capturing his own take of Brutalist architecture around the UK.
"The departure point for my photographic documentation of brutalist architecture is Reyner Banham's essay ‘The New Brutalism’ published in the Architectural Review, December 1955:"
"The departure point for my photographic documentation of brutalist architecture is Reyner Banham's essay ‘The New Brutalism’ published in the Architectural Review, December 1955:"
Nicolas Kennedy
Nicholas Kennedy Sitton is a photographer currently based out of San Francisco, California, USA.
My response:
Screen Printing
The effect of screen printing takes the colour of an area, finds it's mid-tone and blocks the selected area in that new colour. On photoshop, you can achieve this using the polygonal lasso tool. After you have selected the area which you would like average the colour of, you select the filter tab, go to blur and select average. Keep doing this until the entire photo has been averaged in different sections. The size of the sections can be as large or small as you like, depending on how accurate you want the result to be.
Thomas Danthony
'Your print series for Black Dragon Press showcases famous buildings around London such as Trellick Tower, which was designed in the Brutalist style by Erno Goldfinger. For a building with a dubious reputation you achieved something quite unique – you made it sexy. Not something that comes easy to architecture, especially ones that proudly display so much concrete. Very little of the buildings are shown, but you know they’re there – you feel them in the shadows. They’re simply illuminated by moonlight, or streetlights, and it’s quite beautiful. When approaching the series, how did you decide which angles to choose as your point of view? Were they always going to be black and white?'
'When I started the series I did a lot of research and realized that the massive amounts of concrete were giving them that B&W feeling even in the daylight. So it was making sense to start from there. I love those buildings and I wanted to depict them as I see them with poesy and a hint of narration with the moon cycle as lighting to tie the series together. Also, I wanted to show the actual proportion of the buildings so I decided to go for a front view and to only give volume with the light and shadow game.' - Thomas Danthony
'When I started the series I did a lot of research and realized that the massive amounts of concrete were giving them that B&W feeling even in the daylight. So it was making sense to start from there. I love those buildings and I wanted to depict them as I see them with poesy and a hint of narration with the moon cycle as lighting to tie the series together. Also, I wanted to show the actual proportion of the buildings so I decided to go for a front view and to only give volume with the light and shadow game.' - Thomas Danthony
Idris Khan
My response:
Film
I went back to the Barbican and took photographs on film to try and create a sense of age to the images. I also took photographs of more modern buildings to create a sense of contrast between them and the style of photo- as well as the contrast between the brutalist buildings.
Film- Russell Square
For these photos I explored a new area in Russell Square