Gloucester.

I am not happy with the photographs that I got in Gloucester at all. I chose a very cold, cloudy night to go and the images did not work as well as I hoped for.

I decided to photograph at night time because a lot of bombs during WWII were dropped at night after the nazis changed there tactics. I visited the docks knowing it was relatively picturesque and I would have the option to work with the bright lights and the dark sky at different points.

I would have preferred this photograph if I could get the rest of the text on the building in the frame too. However sadly I could not get to this point due to a fence in the way.

I quite like this frame, I believe it is the best out of those I have got. It look right over the docks, with plenty of space surrounding the image.

In the end I got bored because I wasn't getting the results I wanted. Instead I started to take some light trails as I scouted for better places to shoot. 

Unfortunately the locations I found still didn't produce very good images. I had some fun with the light trails, but now I know that night photographs are going to be difficult and something I probably shouldn't consider for further work.

Cheltenham

Having already photographed at Pilley Bridge, I chose a pretty hurrendous day to go out and photograph other locations in Cheltenham that were affected by the air raid on December 11th 1940. The hurrendous weather was not wished for, it was sunny when I started. It was sunny again as I finished. I tried to mix things up a  bit as I shot, very aware that the photographs I had taken in Bristol were quite boring. Whilst I am aware the style of photographs don't currently work together as a set for a story, these are the ones I am most pleased with.

This shot I would like to revisit, capture more directly and on a brighter day perhaps.

This shot is my favourite out of all those I have produced so far.

I am currently undecided as to whether or not I would like to crop out the houses on the left hand side.

I think the latter two photographs work the strongest regarding photographing roads. They are simple and they keep out the distractions of the traffic. The inclusion of the sky is also quite important, given that the bombs would have been dropped from above.

Bristol

I visited the City of Bristol to have a look at some of the places that were bombed. Seeing as Bristol took a quite a battering during the Second World War I opted to stick the roads that were struck during the first raid on the city. I can return another time to photograph locations that were effected later on.

The photographs that I got were, for the most part, boring street photographs of shoppers in the centre. This is because the areas have been rebuilt and made to fit the modern demand with shopping centres. However, I was lucky enough for some places to still be quite historic and quieter - allowing for better photograph options.

St. Nicholas Street.

Bristol Temple Meads Station.

Castle Park

Not a bomb location, but taken from one. High Street.

Again, not a bomb location but the area was very picturesque.

I do intend to go back and photograph other locations in the city that were affected by air raids later on. The photographs shot on this visit were only of the first, very central raid. Some of the later bombings also have better stories attached to them.

Pilley Bridge

Pilley Bridge was once part of the Great Western Trainline running through Cheltenham. Now it has been turned in to a nature reserve. I visited the area to photograph a bridge that was bombed during WWII. 

The bridge was bombed on December 11th 1940. It was the last war damaged bridge to be repaired, over ten years later in 1954. Later, trains stopped running the route in 1964 following the Beeching Reports recommendations.

 

Project Idea

WWII has always been interesting for me, ever since I was young. For tis landscape project I am hoping to capture how the UK has recovered from the war and developed.

Having spent the last couple of weeks looking at multiple works by numerous artists and considering the different relevant topics that I can produce work about. The two topics that I toyed between the most were World War Two and Bees. Both are very current discussion but two very different stories. Having briefly looked in to both of the story ideas I have now settled on one, World War Two.

Currently in the media, both World War One and World War Two are hot topics. However my interest lies most with World War Two. I would like to develop a visual study of how the United Kingdom has recovered from the War, whether it has recovered or still in the process of.

I intend to visit numerous locations that were affected by the war and photograph what has become of these places. Have they been well developed or are they now wastelands? For research purposes, I will visit relevant museums and galleries. For example the Imperial War Museum in London would be a good starting point. As well as this, books filled with information on the time period and photographs from the war. Other photographs such as those that show sites such as the Normandy beaches would be useful and something I am going to look in to.

This is a project that will be easily adaptable as I have the whole of the United Kingdom to work with. Thankfully public transport is well developed to make travelling nice and easy for me as I do not drive and I am sure I could pull in favours with some people for lifts if they are local enough.
I do fear this topic could be quite broad as just a general World War Two story and so to limit this I would like to be able to narrow my topic down a bit by covering bombing sites as this would have had a great impact on the landscape.

For a 20 year old I am friends with a large number of people that have survived the war, with stories ranging from a wartime childhood to fighting o the front line. This will offer me a good insight in to the time period and a better story as I will get to hear real life experiences about the war. Even if stories are not directly about bombings, the information will be useful.