Points of Interest

As I have made mention this module for me is a retake, (I'm not a very disaplind blogger so a lot of this is done retrospectively). At the beginning of this project I looked back at the work I produced for the fist attempt. I decided early on that I wanted to focus on taking the brief in the most literal sense and make it my own view. I wanted to focus on the town where I grew up (Basingstoke). Basingstoke has its history rooted in the times of the British civil war, accommodating a large weapons arsenal. The towns' population increased rapidly following the second World War owing to resettlement projects to the north of the town and the increase in social mobility. In the 70's the town became a place of trade and commerce, office blocks, warehouses and commuter accommodation quickly sprung up owing largely to the geographical location.

The reason I am interested in photographing this areas is because it is an area going through a huge identity crises. It is an area desperately trying to replace the concrete 1970's architecture and become a place of glass, marble and polished steel.

John Davies photographs from the British isles depicts scenes of shifts in identity. This scene in particular shows the combination of modern British architecture in the train station canopies against a dated concrete backdrop, which includes a building being developed the hide its original look.

http://www.johndavies.uk.com/fawr.htm

Large areas of the town were and still undergoing mass redevelopment. Last year I decided to focus specifically on the the area outlined in this image. This area know as basing view is where the most drastic changes are underway. Many buildings are being demolished and many remain vacant. There are very few companies working out of this area.

http://www.basingview.co.uk/?page=Masterplan pp31

In 2010 the company responsible for the demolition of many of these buildings went into administration and many lay partially demolished and the entire area was very much redundant for around eight months.
I was really unsure at the time as to want method was best. These are a few test shots I took on a variety of formats.