Plymouth Central Library

Today we started a small project where we have to capture the 'essence' of Plymouth Central Library. The main reason for this was because it's being moved to a location more towards the city centre. The library has been on the site since 1910 but had a lot of extensive post-war re-modelling and reforming. All of the first year students (including students from photography, fashion and textiles, creative media, art and design and graphics.) have to work towards a final collection of work which could be used as potential memory material for future generations to look back on to compare and admire. The site which they are moving from is going to be completely reformed into a history centre. The plans for this are below. Compared to how it looks at the moment, it's going to be completely different with a fully paved over street right next to our college where the library and museum currently are.

This work could potentially be used on the Plymouth Central Libraries website and social media which would then be credited to us. It's a good opportunity as our work get our name out there to other clients for future times. To evaluate the shoot, I did enjoy it for a while at first but eventually I got a bit bored of taking pictures of the same thing. I did enjoy exploring the library in full which included the variety of resources they have for the public to borrow and the different sections and areas they have within the library grounds. I personally really liked going down to the basement where they keep all of the really old books which cannot be put on display or for people to take out. I liked how it was layed out where you can move the shelving where you'll then find more books, journals etc. Some of the books down there were stacked quite randomly which I thought made a great photo. I liked how the books down there looked quite old and were relatively raggedy and shabby looking. To look through the photos I chose a selection on the computer which looked best and printed them as a contact sheet, I then chose my favourite pieces which I wanted to edit. I chose around 10 photos and edited them making them all look their best. The contact sheet was a way for me to quickly and efficiently analyse my photos, choosing the best ones from there. I use little symbols to state when I like a photo and when I don't - such as ticks and crosses - I also write little words by certain ones to remind myslef of what I wanted to do to them when editing.

I have now chosen my top 8 which are below. Below each image I'm going to evaluate what I like and dislike about them as well as a short analysis and photo explanation.

This first photo was taken in the basement of a little stack of books I found. I liked the composition and the layout of the books. I love how the selection of books are all different sizes and almost toppling over. I am a big fan of lines and pattern so by having the books all together it really inspired my thoughts. If this photo could be better I would want it to be a bit more in focus as there are parts which don't look so good. As well as this I would've liked to have taken the photo a bit straighter as the shelf is slanted to the bottom right.

This photograph was also taken in the basement of the library. I liked the way the books looked from a higher angle and I like way the books fall upon each other. The photo is quite colourful which I think is quite nice to represent the bright nature of the library. If I re-took this shot I would've liked to cover the bottom left hand corner shelf with books so that it wasn't the odd thing out being surrounded by books.

Before shooting, I knew that as we were going to a library that I wanted to do a bookshelf shot from below going up. I chose this shelf as the books were all very neat, tidy and looked quite professional. I think by using a black and white filter it adds depth and mood to the piece. I think it would've been better if it was all in focus as to make it look a bit better I ended up blurring it from the top down.

This photo was a very in the moment sort of thing as I saw the book and thought it looked nice so took the picture just hoping it would turn out alright. I really liked the brown book with the number 942 on the bottom so when I was editing the photo I blurred the entire picture other than the small section it came into. I like how the 942 book was the only thing to be relatively light unlike the rest of it which is a lot of navy blue.

This photo didn't turn out as well as some or as I had hoped as I wanted the foreground books to be very sharp and in focus but they didn't turn out so great. I do like how the blur and focus fades out throughout the image. I left the image in colour to try and portray a happy, joyful, bright place as I know that’s how the library would want to be seen.​

I actually think this piece was one of my most successful from the shoot as I think it captures a lot of what the task was. The task title was 'capture the essence of Plymouth Central Library', this means to capture what it's about and what's in it. When I first had a look around the library, I saw this map and thought it was quite special and looked very bright for what it is. I wanted to take a picture of it because the colours capture a bright, joyful theme and the map in itself represents Plymouth and what is in the library. One thing I would prefer would be if the wall which is upright was only either a small strip or just not captured at all.

This photo was planned before taking part in the shoot, I wanted to capture the corner of the maps which included the title 'City Of Plymouth'. When I took the photo, I thought it looked in focus in the lens but when I went through my photos it wasn't how I thought. To try and make he situation better I used the blur tool on photoshop and blurred the entire image other than that top title corner. I turned it black and white to capture the date the map was from - to try and date the image.

As well as taking photos of the obvious things to find in a library - books, maps, shelving, etc - I wanted to capture the other things as well. When I was down in the basement, I found a few books full of old photographs from over 50 - and some even over 100 - years old. I thought this was a very nice thing to keep in the library as it is a way to keep old memories. The actual photo could've been better but as I was in the far corner of the basement, I struggled to get good enough lighting. ​