Brutalist architecture is a fragmented movement in architecture that flourished from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, descended from the modernist architectural movement of the 1930s. Examples are typically massive in character (even when not large), fortresslike, with a predominance of exposed concrete construction. There is often an emphasis on graphically expressing in the external elevations and in the whole-site plan the main functions and people-flows of the buildings. Brutalism became popular for educational buildings, but was relatively rare for corporate projects. Brutalism became favoured for many government projects, high-rise housing, and shopping centres to create an architectural image that communicated strength, functionality, and frank expression of materiality.

I did a lot of research into Brutalism and what it meant and what the architects intended with their buildings. They wanted to create a kid of urban utopia, a futuristic ideal. The more I looked into it, the more I found that I was especially interested in where Brutalism has been used within social housing. I loved the ideology behind the designs of the buildings, the idea of mass. futuristic social living and community, an urban utopia. I think it is a shame that it didn’t work and through this project I would like to explore and find out why this was, and if there are any exceptions, is there anywhere where this plan has really worked?

 

As this is going to be the final project of my degree, I wanted to study and explore something that not only am I extremely interested in, but also something that I know I will be able to keep working on for a long time, something that has a lot of scope. I think exploring Brutalist architecture has the potential to be a large and interesting project with a lot of different angles to consider.

Lewis Baltz

large format

linear

correct perspective

not too contrasty

simple but shapes so interesting

 

'New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape' was an exhibition that epitomized a key moment in American landscape photography. The show was curated by William Jenkins in 1975.

 

The topographical nature of the Bechers work and everything in the New Topographics has really inspired me. I love the idea of documenting things in this way, it's very clinical but at the same time brings life into these objects that we otherwise wouldn't look at, kind of gives them a story. The fact that they have been photographed at all makes them important.
I want to do something similar with my photographs, I am making a document of the Brutalist structures because I think it's important that they are remembered. I feel like the raw concrete and plain walls of Brutalist architecture is something that a lot of people generally walk straight past and I want to show them in a way that makes you look again. Every line, groove, angle was put there on purpose, and I want to show how beautiful this is, make it stand out.

find out what they were shot on

uses angles and shapes of the structure to create interesting and unique compositions

i like how it is not quite completely desaturated, a tiny bit of warmth

I have chosen to make black and white photographs for a few reasons. I think monochrome is timeless, my photographs could have been taken last week or 50 years ago and you couldn’t tell. I also think that sometimes colour can distract from what is going on in the photograph, you focus more on the bright colours and less on the details. With black and white photographs, I find that shapes and lines are more defined and easier to look at. As my work is very linear and shape orientated, I think black and white is a perfect medium for this project.

 

This project is a continuation of the work I was making last term. I am going to photographically explore the space brutalist architecture holds within our social landscape in England. I am especially interested in the ideology behind Brutalism and how I can show this through my photographs. I am also interested in the recent decline in Brutalist architecture in our country and through my work will explore the reasons for this as well as trying to show the beauty of these structures that the architects intended.

 

Last year I traveled to five different structures within England, these were; the Park Hill Estate in Sheffield, Clifton Cathedral in Bristol, the Alexandra Road Estate in North London and Robin Hood Gardens and Balfron Tower in East London.

 

My plan is to revisit all of these sites and rephotograph using large format mediums as well as hopefully some new locations. I believe my project will benefit from me shooting with 5”4” film because this format offers a massive amount of detail and information within images as well as the lens being able to shift meaning with architectural photography, the proportions of buildings remain as the eye sees.

 

Previously I shot with both colour and black and white film and through evaluating last years work I have decided that my project is much better suited to black and white alone. This is because I believe the shapes of the buildings and my linear compositions are seen better when colour is taken away, I also think black and white goes well with the brutal simplicity of the architecture and suggests something of the time it was built.

 

I expect the outcomes of my project to be some large hand made prints of the most successful photographs as well as a photobook documenting my best images.

I had not ever used a 5”4” camera before so I thought a good idea would be to do some practicing and get used to the camera before I traveled to any proper location.

 

After a few workshops and some online tutorials I finally felt ready to give the camera a go. I found the level of control you have is incredible compared to that of 35mm or even 120. I really enjoyed the slow way of working and found that it made me focus much more on things like composition and the actual machinery and the process of how the camera works.

Last year one of my favourite locations to shoot was Clifton Cathedral. The unusual architecture was really enjoyable to photograph and made for some interesting compositions. I decided to use this location to practice using the 5”4” camera as it was close to home.

 

After developing my negatives I made some small prints to get a closer look at what I’d taken. Definitely still getting the hang of the camera, one photograph had a light leak and none were very straight. However I was pleased to discover that all the photographs were correctly focused and exposed.

 

 

 

http://www.johncyrphotography.com/page5/texturalcompositions.html

 

Developer Trays, 2010-2012

archival pigment prints, 28” x 24”

Ansel Adams’ Developer Tray, 2011

Andrea Modica’s Developer Tray, 2011

Lillian Bassman’s Developer Tray, 2010

Eileen Travell’s Developer Tray, 2010

Andreas Feininger’s Developer Tray, 2010

Joni Sternbach’s Developer Tray, 2011

Sally Mann’s Developer Tray, 2011

Wynn Bullock’s Developer Tray, 2011

O. Winston Link’s Developer Tray, 2011

Tom Baril’s Developer Tray, 2012

 

From the mid nineteenth century until today, silver gelatin printing has been one of the most utilized photographic processes.  From classic reportage to fine art photography, the majority of it was performed in a black and white darkroom until the mid-1970’s.  As recently as 2000, black and white darkroom classes still served as the location for introduction to photography courses. The digital advances in photography over the past ten years have been remarkable. I am photographing available developer trays so that the photography community will remember specific, tangible printing tools that have been a seminal part of the photographic experience for the past hundred years.  By titling each tray with its owner’s name, I reference the historical significance of these objects in a minimal manner that evokes thought and introspection about what images have passed through each individual tray.

I went to the Robin Hood Gardens estate in Poplar. I have visited this location several times before and shot using 35 and 120 film so I felt like by now I knew the buildings quite well and knew what angles worked as photographs.

 

This meant that I was quite picky about what I was shooting and didn’t end up taking very many photographs.

 

Alison and Peter Smithson

Last year when I visited Balfron Tower in Poplar I was approached by an unhappy tenant who told me that I needed a permit to photograph the building as it was private property. I was sure that this wasn’t true but felt uncomfortable continuing taking photographs after that.

 

To avoid this happening again, I contacted Bree Sims from the Poplar Harca Housing Association who told me that I do not need a permit to photograph the exteriors of the buildings. She gave me her contact details and told me to direct anyone with any questions to her. This made me feel much more comfortable and confident taking photographs in the area now that I had definite permission.

I need to make the most of the format I am using. Large Format offers so much detail, I should take more shots of small details and textures and images with near and far things in focus to show how good the format is.

 

http://www.matthias-heiderich.de/

 

Matthias Heiderich is a German Architecture photographer. I think his work is beautiful. He uses the natural shapes of the environment, the architecture and the natural land to create these incredible compositions. There is a lot of symmetry and use of lines and shapes in his work that draws the viewers eye around the image. I think the use of colour in these photographs works really well and kind of proves me wrong about my black and white theory.

 

This extremely composition orientated feel is what I want my work to have.

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/ruin-lust

Jane and Louise Wilson
Azeville

Keith Coventry’s Heygate Estate 1995

http://www.tate.org.uk/art/images/work/P/P77/P77870_10.jpg

Rachel Whiteread’s Demolished – B: Clapton Park Estate 1996

 

Back in London, going to try and get everything I need before the holidays are over so I can spend the rest of the time editing and printing. I am going to stay and keep photographing every day until I feel confident that I definitely have everything I need. At the end of the holidays when I feel like I've completely got the hang of the camera I'm going to go back to Park Hill in Sheffield and re-shoot.

http://www.andreas-levers.de/modern-world

 

Andreas Levers is another German photographer who focuses on architecture and man made shapes as his main photographic subject.

 

I am interested in his use of negative space, I think the images where there is something in the corner and then the rest is sky, are really interesting to look at. I am going to try to take a few of my own in this style.  I feel like I’ve been spending so much time trying to get correct perspective in my images of buildings I have forgotten that they don’t all have to be perfectly straight and grid - like.

I went to Thamesmead yesterday and immediately regretted not going there sooner, the location is perfect for my project. The entire area is made up of Brutalist style architecture, It was built in the late 60’s to be a place for the overcrowded people of Central London to live. The architects tried to use the earlier mistakes from previous estate building as learning opportunities. They put lots of canals and lakes around, hoping this would lead to a more calm atmosphere as well as making the whole area more open with paths and walkways and more space in between buildings.

 

Despite all the efforts to make this area work, it still had many problems. It is very cut off from everything else, making it very difficult to get into London or across the river. There was also a lack of shops and the nearest shopping town was the other side of a railway with no bridge. A bridge was finally built several years later.

 

I found this to be a really good location to shoot at, there was so much architecture and the backdrop of lakes and canals and wildlife adds a really interesting dimension. I wish that I had visited this location sooner as I feel there is still a lot I could get from here. I hope I have time for one more visit.

 

For most of this project, my final plan was to show a couple of big prints but also to make a photobook of all my best images. I feel idea made me focus too much on getting good images from each location so I kept going back to the old ones 5 or 6 times when I could have been visiting new ones.

 

I have decided to scrap the idea of making a book and am going to just show some of my best photographs as my final piece. This allows me to keep visiting new places and find new and interesting angles to photograph and this has already made the project much more exciting for me.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/Geometry-Geology/7299757

 

 

There are many similarities between natural objects and Brutalism. Grey concrete, massive, imposing.

"Large-scale photos of the broken and decayed World War Two bunkers that litter the Normandy coastline of northern France form the basis of a new exhibition at the New Art Gallery in Walsall.

 

The black and white photographs are monumental and compelling.

 

They also occupy a space between land and sea, carrying the very real scars of the battle to rid Europe of fascism, and for the artists they now seem to defy any sense of time and place."

"The name of this Group is derived from a diaphragm number of the photographic lens. It signifies to a large extent the qualities of clearness and definition of the photographic image which is an important element in the work of members of this Group.

The chief object of the Group is to present in frequent shows what it considers the best contemporary photography of the West; in addition to the showing of the work of its members, it will include prints from other photographers who evidence tendencies in their work similar to that of the Group.

Group f/64 is not pretending to cover the entire of photography or to indicate through its selection of members any deprecating opinion of the photographers who are not included in its shows. There are great number of serious workers in photography whose style and technique does not relate to the metier of the Group.

Group f/64 limits its members and invitational names to those workers who are striving to define photography as an art form by simple and direct presentation through purely photographic methods. The Group will show no work at any time that does not conform to its standards of pure photography. Pure photography is defined as possessing no qualities of technique, composition or idea, derivative of any other art form. The production of the "Pictorialist," on the other hand, indicates a devotion to principles of art which are directly related to painting and the graphic arts.

The members of Group f/64 believe that photography, as an art form, must develop along lines defined by the actualities and limitations of the photographic medium, and must always remain independent of ideological conventions of art and aesthetics that are reminiscent of a period and culture antedating the growth of the medium itself.

The Group will appreciate information regarding any serious work in photography that has escaped its attention, and is favorable towards establishing itself as a Forum of Modern Photography."

Group f/64 was a group of photographers working at the beginning of the 20th century that shared a common interest of working with a specific f-stop. Their sharp focused images contrasted strongly against the current pictorialist style that was extremely common in the 1900’s.

The term f/64 comes from the name of the smallest aperture setting on a camera which creates the maximum and biggest depth of field, meaning everything in the photograph will be sharp and in focus. The group rejected the soft focused method and instead took ‘pure photography’. the group wanted to show things as true to life as possible, “to photograph a rock,” Ansel Adams famously said, “have it look like a rock, but be more than a rock.”

 

 

 

I think Adams was trying to say here that his photographs are not just a document of the subject but a document of everything it means, and how he feels about the subject. This is what I am trying to do with my photographs. They are documenting the brutalist structures before none are left. But they also hopefully capture the "feeling" of the buildings. I want them to show how I feel about the architecture too, I hope my compositions show the beauty in the angles of the buildings. I want to try and show the beauty that the architects and designers originally intended with these magnificent structures.

 

 

 

I had originally imagined that I would write some sort of introduction to my book, explaining my project and why I had taken these photos, and also to show the photographs in some sort of order of location. But when it came to laying it out I realised that it was much more about the shapes in the architecture, the images that I ended up choosing flowed really well and I think text would just distract from that. I decided having chapters for each location wasn't really what I was going for, the compositions decided the order for themselves and most worked much better being next to different textures and shapes rather than ones from the same building etc.

 

The book is quite intense with its big double page images full of bold lines and black and white and I think its turned into a sort of graphical document, I decided to have the text at the back of the book so the reader can get straight into the images and find out about them after, sort of make their own mind up of whether they like the architecture or not, hopefully my photographs shed a good light on it. I wrote just a sentence of information about the project and my contact details as I decided I wanted my book to be more of a visual experience.

Photo-Brutalism

 

This project is a continuation from the work I was making last term. The idea was to photograph Brutalist Architecture and explore the space it holds in our urban landscape. Previously I visited a number of Brutalist structures around Britain and photographed them using colour and black and white film in various formats. The preparatory research and photographic work I made during the first module lead me to want to complete a more extended study of the subject.

 

I wanted to photograph Brutalist Architecture for a number of reasons. I think Brutalism is an extremely photogenic subject, the architects created very angular and linear arrangements of shapes that can be photographed in a an infinite number of ways to create incredibly interesting compositions. After realising I was interested in Brutalism I went on to do some research and the more I found out about the history of the subject, the ideology behind the architecture and what the designers intended these structures to be and represent, the more I wanted to study and photograph Brutalism.

 

Through my images I wanted to convey a sense of what the architects intended with the buildings. Brutalism became popular after the second world war, cities needed a cheap and easy solution to house the growing population. Brutalism was the answer, it offered logical designs, streets in the sky, the new way of social living. It was going to be an urban utopia, places for the next generations to grow up in mass community environments. This idea however didn't last and many problems arose, the dark shadowy walkways were ideal crime spots and throwing masses of people together who probably didn't want to live like that made for a sometimes hostile environment. This has lead to a general belief that Brutalist structures are “ugly” and “eye sores” and recently a lot of these structures have been demolished or are in plans to be. I find the ideas behind Brutalism fascinating and although I can see why in a lot of cases it didn't work, I think if it was attempted again, learning from it's mistakes, it could. I love the idea of communal living and especially in Brutalist buildings. Using photography I wanted to explore where these ideas have and haven't worked in Britain by visiting as many locations as possible and trying to show how beautiful and important I think these structures are.

 

To best portray the gravitas and incredible design of the architecture, I chose to shoot this project using large format film cameras. During the first term I shot several locations with 35mm and 120mm film and found it restricting in terms of detail and information in the images. Large format cameras also offer a large amount of lens movement which gives them the ability to show correct perspective in images which is ideal for architectural photography. Another stylistic choice I made was to shoot the project completely using black and white film. I believe monochrome suits the project well, it makes you focus more on the basic shapes and composition of the image rather than colour details and has a timeless quality that I think works well with this old style of architecture.

 

The biggest influence on my work at this stage was Lewis Baltz. His very clinical, typological style was something I wanted to capture through my own photographs. Brutalism is very linear and symmetrical and I thought shot with Baltz's deadpan straight style it could bring out and draw attention to the aesthetics the architects put so much thought into. I was also interested in his attention to details like surface texture and patterns and made an effort to try and document some of these aspects of the architecture in my photographs.

 

I was initially quite intimidated by the thought of using a large format camera. It was something I had never done but as soon as I had a tutorial I knew I was going to enjoy it. I loved having that level of complete control over my images and although it was frustrating at times and took a long time to really get used to the camera and way of working, I am extremely glad I made the effort because I think it has added an immeasurable dimension to my project as well as providing me with an incredibly valuable set of skills.

 

It took several attempts in the first few locations before I was confident with the camera, I made a lot of mistakes and errors, and this was very frustrating. Over the course of the project however I feel that my skills with large format have dramatically improved, it took some proper research into the mechanics of the cameras but after I had got my head around that and relentlessly practised, I feel I really did get the hang of large format. I really enjoy the slow pace way of working with large format photography and the massive amounts of thought and attention that goes into each shot. I think knowing how to use a large format camera properly will be an extremely valuable skill in the professional world and I have bought my own camera so I can continue shooting in this style.

 

Something I did differently this term that paid off was getting access to shoot in some of the locations. I knew already that it was legal for me to photograph the outsides of the buildings as they were council housing it meant they were public areas. However I still felt a bit uncomfortable turning up with a huge set of kit outside peoples homes. Last term I was approached when taking pictures by an angry tenant who said it was illegal to take photographs here and that I needed a permit. To avoid anything like this happening again I contacted the housing association and explained what I was doing, they said I did not need a permit to photograph the exteriors of the buildings and to direct anybody with questions directly to them. This made me feel a lot more comfortable photographing in these areas because I knew for sure that I was allowed and had a response for anybody who asked. Other than this I generally found that I got a better reaction from strangers when shooting large format than I do with 35mm, I found that people took me a bit more seriously and would come and ask me about my project whereas when I’m shooting 35mm I feel like people are not happy with me taking photographs.

 

As I gained confidence with the camera I started looking at more architecture photographers, someone who caught my attention immediately was Matthias Heiderich, a German photographer. He uses the natural shapes of the environment, the architecture and the natural land to create these incredible compositions. There is a lot of symmetry and use of lines and shapes in his work that draws the viewers eye around the image. This extremely compositionally orientated feel is what I wanted my work to have.

 

Originally my plan for the project was to shoot as many different locations as possible and then put all my best photographs into a book and print a few big images to show at the exhibitions. However after a few months it became clear that I wasn't getting enough 'good' photographs and I got worried about being able to fill up a book. I think the project finally came into its own over the Easter holidays, I took out the camera and bought a lot of film and returned to all the previous locations as well as a lot of new ones. I made an effort to just keep shooting until I knew I had enough and it paid off. At this point I had a tutorial and we decided I definitely had enough images to make a book.

 

I knew that a big part of my project was going to be spent printing and book making so made sure to leave some time to fit all of this in. The first job was to scan all of my images to the highest standard and then edit and retouch them in post production. I hadn't done a lot of this previously and found it to be a bigger task than I had expected, however I feel I gained a very valuable skill in using things like the clone stamp in photoshop. Once the photos were all made perfect It was time to start making the book.

 

My main source of inspiration came from photographer, book-maker and collector, Craig Atkinson. Atkinson makes zines, creating double page spreads from his own black and white images. I think double page, full bleed spreads are a great way to show architectural photography. As I had gone to all the effort of shooting large format photographs I wanted to be able to show them at their full potential, I wanted my book to be big and also to keep in with the proportions of 5x4. This meant that the book when closed was going to be quite an odd shape.

 

Last term my final outcome was a zine of my best work, I put it together using InDesign and was very disappointed when the images were all pixelated even though I had used high resolution images. This time round I made sure to find out what had gone wrong, I needed to resize the images to the exact size of the page instead of stretching them across. I decided to use a printers called Ripe Digital in Bath because I had heard a lot of good things about them and they were able to print the funny size of my book.

 

I am not completely happy with my book now I've had a proper look at it printed. The cover is far too thin, it feels like more of a magazine than a book to me and not sturdy enough. This is something I could have altered by going in to the shop and picking a paper but I was unable to travel. I am also not happy with the shape and dimensions of the book, I know that it has to be that shape if I want to keep the images at a 5x4 ratio but I just feel like its an awkward shape and doesn't work as well as it could. Another thing that wasn't perfect was the colouring in the images, the photographs are all black and white but in the book its a strange greeny digitalised version of black and white. I do not have time to change any of this before submission but I will definitely be editing and redesigning the book for exhibiting at the London show. I think if I used a white border around the landscape images the book would be more in proportion, I will also get a much thicker cover and make sure the colours are correct. Although there were quite a few problems with the book, I was really happy with how the images looked. The quality of the prints are fantastic and I think the photographs look great on full page spreads, I'm glad I chose to have such a big book as the detail in the images is really clear and nice to look at.

 

As well as the book I also wanted to make a series of prints for my final outcome. From the beginning of the project I knew that I wanted to hand print these myself in the darkroom. Printing in the darkroom has always been an important part of my work, I feel like it is another part of the process that I would miss out on if printing digitally. I really enjoy that extra level of involvement with the images, things like burning in darker skies. I also think that it would be a shame to print digitally when I have been using analogue methods the whole way through the project. Printing from 5x4 negatives creates a massive amount of detail that I think looks really beautiful on a hand print. The paper I chose to print on was a resin coated gloss paper. I chose this because I love how the gloss makes details stand out and makes things look really sharp, my images are very detailed so I wanted to show this off.

 

When I began printing I came across a big problem, when the images were being blown up so big, all the little marks and scratches were extremely visible. When editing the images digitally it was so easy to just get rid of little marks that I didn't even think about how they would affect my prints. The marks came from dust that was inside the dark slides when I was taking the photographs, this was my mistake and although it could have been prevented, I had never even known this was an issue to watch out for. I will definitely learn from this mistake and always make sure to clean out the slides. With traditional printing on fibre papers you can spot out little marks but it is more difficult with resin coated paper, it would also be very difficult because spotting inks are generally for filling in white marks rather than the black ones in my photographs.

 

I am extremely disappointed about this, it is such a shame because the images are so detailed and sharp and I think they look great when printed big but are ruined by the ugly dust marks all over them. With such limited time there is nothing I can do but even if I was to re-print using a fibre paper the task would still be incredibly difficult and might not even work. My only option now is to print the photographs digitally for the final exhibition. This is not at all what I wanted for my final piece but it is the only way I can show my images to their best potential, printing digitally also means I could print bigger than 20x24 so that is a plus. I will be submitting the hand made prints as I think they still show my printing abilities and if you ignore the marks the photos still look good. They are not at all the quality I would like to show to the public and I am unhappy that I don't have time to make digital copies to submit for the examination but hopefully the retouched images in the book will give an example of how the digital prints will look.

 

 

Overall I think this has been a very successful and fulfilling project for me. The idea was something I was really interested in and so I was always looking forward to the next stage. I think I have come out of this year with some incredibly valuable skills, being able to correctly and confidently use a large format camera is something I will definitely value in the future, as well as strongly improving my skills in photoshop and my printmaking skills. I really feel that I have shot this project to its full potential and not cut any corners in trying to get the best quality of images. I encountered some problems and frustrations as well as some big mistakes throughout the project but I feel confident that I have used these experiences to learn and improve rather than give up.

 

Completing a lot of research into Brutalist architecture helped me understand what the architects intended with their designs and this in turn helped me understand what I was trying to convey with my project. I hope that my photographs fully represent how majestic, beautiful and important I think these structures are and possible help to sway other people towards my way of thinking.

 

I feel like a much more confident and experienced photographer after completing this project and although my final images are not exactly what I intended, I don't think I would have done a lot differently with this project, I feel I worked hard and it has paid off. I think although I have completed this part of the project, It has a lot of potential and I am seriously considering taking it further post graduation.