Church

Church

Again this photo steers away from my 'bleak beauty' work and looks more towards London and architecture. I like how this photo shows change and how London has developed. I also feel this photo shows how people have adapted to different buildings, for example this is an old church which has since been converted into flats and housing. This old church stands against a more modern tower block, typical of high rise flats found across London. There are similarities found in both buildings, voth have strong lines and airly simple shapes with old and modern chimneys. These buildings do contrast eachother quite well and show a change in time and development in building materials and architectural styles. The telephoto lens has compressed both the foreground and background, by doing this it minimises the depth between the buildings and gives a much flatter feel to the image.

Although this isn't fitting with my beauty and banality theme I have in other photos, the blank tower block does show bleakness and looks mundane, this does somehow contrast with the once religious church, but this itself has fallen to ruin and is just as bleak. If the church was a beautiful and stunning building that stood against this mundane concrete tower block, it would show more change and more contrast. London was a hugely industrial city when the church was built and a as smalmore church it was more than likely built for practical purposes rather than being a fancy and decorative church. I think that the church and tower block are both dull buildings regardless of their age, since then the church has also fallen to ruin and looks pretty dismal. The centre of the image is filled with the cross, a religious symbol that would have once sat high above the area, something that is now over shadowed by a bland tower block that is repeated all over Britain. This is a symbol of affordable housing and are often seen in poorer areas of cities. As the church has changed over time it shows it wasn't used, the church was once a huge part of English culture but as society has changed over time, religion has died, churches have been used for other purposes other than as a place of god. 

Overall I feel this image is much more a symbolic photo. It represents change over time, looking at buildings, housing and how society has changed as a once religious building is now a run down set of flats and the religious cross is now over shadowed by a bland block of flats also falling into ruin like the church did.