Mow Cop Castle
A photo essay reflecting on the Women of the 1700’s
As part of my ongoing personal development, I planned to start photographing more adults. I had a model in mind, a person I have known for about five years but hadn't actually spoken to her in about two years. I decided to shoot on location as I wanted to test my skills against the elements, rather than shooting in a controlled environment (studio).
Wanting to produce a series of images with a specific meaning attached to them. I already had stone walls in my head from a previous shoot, so after some consideration I decided to carry out the shoot within the ruins of Mow Cop Castle, which was built as a summer house in 1754. It was built by Randle Wilbraham, although some sources speculate if it was built by the Romans. There is no evidence to support this theory.
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| Mow Cop Castle |
I have an interest in history and enjoy visiting ruins. I feel they have so many stories to tell. Its like a secret that you're only allowed to know parts of. You can read the facts about these places, but the thoughts and feelings of the people that lived there all those years ago remain a mystery.
My intention for the shoot is to show the transformation of the woman from when this particular castle was built to the present day. I also plan to write a short essay that run alongside the photographs. I wanted to capture images that show two very different personalities within one woman (the model). I plan to do some research into the castle's history, but the main purpose is to combine an essay in my own words along with my photographs to produce an emotion that the viewer will react to. I would like my work to have an impact on the viewer which triggers thoughts about how women must have felt in those times, to possibly even place themselves there, and to think about how they would cope living in those ages. This essay is not linked to feminism, it is merely an experiment to test my skill of storytelling through images.
To illustrate these emotions, I directed the model and used different clothing for the personality that was being portrayed. I captured the images from different angles, made use of the light and was aware of what was in the background of the shot.
On the day I look my digital SLR along with a Hasselblad and tripod. It was an extremely windy day, and we were quite high, so was extremely hard work carrying all the equipment up to the top of the hill where the castle was situated. I found it quite challenging trying to get shots on both camera’s so eventually decided to concentrate on my SLR and used one roll of film to see how the photographs varied. On reflection, I found that I did not make proper use of the limited time we had, so did not get as many images for the second personality as I would of liked. In the future I will make sure I have a time management plan to hand to remind myself of the time we have available.
Digital & Film (Hasselblad) Images were edited in Photoshop.
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