A Space

Looking forward to Assignment three - "Building and Spaces".

I have had a look around the Ashmolean Museum to see what it might offer. Clearly this venerable building, recently refurbished, is a place to study objects and could therefore offer places to "frame" or to "pose" people, much in the same way that the curators at the museum stage exhibits. Thought to be the UK's first museum, the Ashmolean doesn't mind photography - in most areas of the building - and so it has a great deal of potential. There is a great deal of statuary in museum, which was founded in 1683. I had intended to see if I could position someone in sympathetic pose, but this lady had other things on her mind.

These escaltors offer a number of possibilities. I could stand further back, or use a wider lens to capture the full scale of travel on these moving staircases, or zoom in to develop different ideas. The doorway to a gallery or even the siting of someone on a bench seem to offer possibilities. There is also the potential, in this shot, of having the picture on the far wall "look" at a subject "looking" at the art - or viewing the viewer.

I found a few shots that provided the "overlooking" perspective. The shot on the left appears to me to be slightly more "vertigenous"- the strong lines of the statue and the architecture, with the staircase leading down helps the viewer to be drawn to a place. I thought any subject could be another "objects d'art" and not be out of place in the space. The shot overlooking the reception area has the benefit of both being a voyeur - neither the lady ascending the staircase from the shop/toilet area nor the visitor at reception have any idea they are being captured.

Again, a couple of different spaces to allow either the subject and context to either be sublimated or amlpified. The imploring statue on the wall overlooking the staircase could be utilised as a visual device.












These last two shots I have included, although they are shots that might also be used as part of Assignment 4 in that they show people as "small" in their environment, but equally they provide examples of how I could utilise people within the space.