After my successes with the last shoot as Flexlands school I decided to drive down to Bristol to visit Almondsbury care home. After my last shoot I discovered the photographer Carlo Ferrara who poses his subjects in an abandoned location (see below). His images give the feeling of a human essence still being present in locations that have been abandoned. So I decided to capture images that give a human essence (for example chairs and graffiti). His images also have a ghostly feel with the use of grain and black and white, however I feel that black and white can take away from the images impact, so I will attempt to selectively colour some of my images to recreate the atmosphere of his black and white images but still with enough colour to be captivating and interesting.
The building was built in 1580 for John Dowel. There was a devastating in 1977 and the majority of the building was demolished in 1980, however the listed archway, coach houses and stables remain (see areal shot highlighting the buildings) . here is an image of the main building before the fire in 1977.
A FIRE that tore through a former nursing home in Almondsbury is believed to have been started deliberately.
Six crews from Thornbury, Patchway, Southmead, Kingswood and Temple raced to Oaklands Drive in Almondsbury on Saturday at 4.53pm after calls of a fire in a derelict two-storey building.
Upon arrival, firefighters found the fire affecting the first floor and the roof, and used six pumping appliances to suppress the fire in the former nursing home.
A quarter of the building was affected by the blaze, with crews remaining at the scene all night to ensure there would be no chance it could re-ignite.
Following an examination of the damage by fire investigators on Sunday, it was believed that the fire was started deliberately, and the case was passed over to police.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset Police said that they were now investigating the incident, which was being treated as suspicious, and that a specialist crime scene investigation unit had examined the scene.
The spokesman added that door to door enquiries have also been carried out by officers.
Anyone who might have seen something or has information that could assist in police inquiries are asked to call 101 immediately, quoting the reference number 5216229988.
The location is also said to be haunted by a white lady, she is also said to haunt the on-site woods called “Pegwell woods”.
This location illustrates how things become damaged over time due to human intervention (fire/vandalism) whereas my last location was a lot more recent and yet had been re calmed more by nature.
The effect fire had on this location was extremely drastic and illustrates the destructive power of fire. However for images it made deep blacks where there should have once been colour, as parts of the house were charred and burned.
Robert Moran
Moran has a collection of images of everyday items passed their prime. They are all items that used to be relied apon, now made obsolete with advances in modern technology.
His work reminded me of the old gas fire I captured. The only difference is that the gas fire still has a function in the modern day, unlike Moran’s work.
His work has given me the idea that I could incorporate old technology into my final piece in some way, I decided the best way to do this would be to present some of my pieces on an old fashion slide projector
During my last shoot I accidentally took to very similar images and turned them into a gif, which I liked because of the depth it added to the images. So while at the care home I decided to attempt to re create it but with more images. After capturing the 5 images looking though a cracked window at different angles I edited them all identically and turned them all into a gif.
I also admired the sky in the image where my subject is sat on the balcony, so I decided to try and animate the sky to make the clouds appear as if they are moving while the rest of the image remains still. Unfortunately converting the video I animated into a gif caused a lot of the images quality to be lost, However I am still pleased with the effect.
Before travelling to the school I discovered an interesting app that allows you to capture 3D interactive panoramas, This app ‘Fyuse’ allowed me to capture some extremely detailed horizontal panoramas of parts of the care home.
Time 