My own
square mile project
The first
thing I did was google 'square mile photography' and I found two
interesting pieces of information.
First of
all were the references to the square mile which is the City of
London and I came across a photographer from Poland, Piotr Malecki,
who had done a project on that (1) and also there were myriad offers
of photo tours of the area. Malecki's photos were mostly of
businessmen in suits. My own quiet residential neighbourhood seems a
world away from this.
Secondly,
perhaps the original concept of the square mile = one square on an
Ordnance Survey map (kilometres these days). There is an entire site
devoted to photographing every square in the UK and Ireland. This
site is rather controversial because the pictures are described as
being 'dull' (2) but it is argued it is an historical rather than a
photographic project so that in the future people will be able to see
what the landscape used to look like. A fellow native of Omagh,
Kenneth Allen, has many photos on this site(3) but his photos could
not be described as dull because he has had many shown on the BBC
Newsline weather forecast. My uncle used to be the librarian in Omagh
and helped Mr Allen out with Ordnance Survey queries.
Here are
my own square mile photos – they do form a series and the common
thread is my mother.
1.This is
the view of Belfast from the hill we live on – I could leave mother
alone for a short while so I nipped up the street. (Canon Powershot
SX270 HS on auto)
2 and 3
.I had a sitter looking after mother for four hours so I went to
Botanic Gardens, Belfast. (Samsung EK GC 110 on auto)
4 and 5 .
Mother and I went to an Alzheimer's group in Templemore Avenue,
Belfast and the photo of the roof tops was taken from the room we
were in and the one of a mural was shot afterwards just outside
whilst we were waiting for a taxi.(Canon Powershot SX270 HS on auto)
6 and 7
Later on the same day we were in Sainsbury's having lunch before
going to the doctor's. I quite often take photos of mother in cafes
to put on facebook for eg my brothers (five) and sisters(three)
(Samsung EK GC 110 on auto)
REFERENCES
city of
london
The
seemingly inexhaustible demand for office space to accommodate all
these institutions has given a number of leading architects bureaus
the opportunity to augment the city's skyline with such playfully
named additions as 'The Shard', 'The Gherkin', 'The Cheese grater'
and 'The Pinnacle', which is currently on hold pending a redesign.
Scurrying around these elegant buildings and populating the millions
of square metres of office space is an army of keen and ambitious
workers who like to think of themselves as living by the maxim of
'work hard, play hard'. As one developer working in The City puts it:
'The City is money, razzmatazz and party.'
Despite recent scandals, including the LIBOR (London Interbank
Offered Rate) scandal where major institutions were found to be
manipulating exchange rates to make money, and the general antipathy
now drawn by The City following the financial crash of 2008, the
'Square Mile', as it is known to Londoners, remains the pumping
heart of the UK's economy and a pillar of the global financial
system. Piotr Malecki walked the streets of The City, savouring the
frenetic energy and ruthless determination of this powerhouse on the
Thames and its hordes of hopefuls.
Picture imperfect: Are these
Britain's dullest photos?
By Alasdair Gill BBC News,
Yorkshire
This photo of a terraced street is
unremarkable and - arguably - dull. But it is among thousands of
similar efforts uploaded by hundreds of volunteers dedicated to
photographing every inch of the British Isles. What drives them?
Deserted housing estates, empty
fields and road signs - the mundane sights that most of us ignore but
which Matthew Eyre is eager to photograph.
He is one of a hardy band who spend
their free time photographing every square mile of the British Isles
for the website Geograph.
"A lot of it does look dull,"
he admits.
"To other people it maybe seems
weird - why do we take pictures of letterboxes and things like that?
Mr Eyre, who is Geograph's second
busiest member having uploaded nearly 110,000 pictures, has set
himself a challenge of walking every street in Portsmouth - and he is
not alone in laying claim to some big numbers.
Image caption Matthew Eyre hopes his
pictures will chronicle how the country changes in the coming years
Image caption Lewis Clarke insists not all of the pictures are of
grassy fields and empty streets
Lewis Clarke uploaded 9,982 pictures
to Geograph last year.
"My mum says it's quite a sad
hobby," he said. "It looks like just a collection of roads
and grassy fields with sheep in them and things like that.
"But it's also a recording of
our history and shows the landscape changing over time."
Mr Eyre agrees.
"There are historians for
virtually everything," he says. "I think to be able to look
back and say 'that's what that place was like in the 21st Century' is
very important.
"The city of London, the
historic buildings will be there for ever, but around them you could
photograph the streets every five years and it would be different.
"Geograph is a site for dull
photos but not for dull people."
Picture this
Geograph
aims to collect, publish, organise and preserve images and
information of every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland, and
the Isle of Man
According
to the website itself it is a geography, history and photography
project. It is also a game, a community and "an excuse to get
out more"
The
game element comes from points. If you are the first to submit a
Geograph for the a grid square you get a "First Geograph"
point added to your profile
There
are also second, third and fourth visitor points and "time-gap
points" for users who photograph areas that have not been
pictured for five years
Richard Webb is currently top
of the Geograph leaderboard with 25,237 Geograph points from 82,754
images
What keeps bringing people like
these back to Geograph is the desire to get more "squares"
than anyone else. The aim is to collectively photograph every square
kilometre of the British Isles.
Each user has their own personalised
map showing where they've been along with all of the tantalisingly
blank squares that have yet to be photographed.
Snap a picture of a
never-before-photographed spot and you get Geograph points. Keep
going and you might start to climb the leaderboards.
"When I've been travelling
along the M5 and the M4 as a passenger I take pictures as I go
along," explained Mr Clarke of his attempts to boost his
numbers.
"Geograph is interesting. You
hear things and you see things you otherwise wouldn't and without it
I probably wouldn't go out as much as I do.
"I was out and about one day
and the police searched my car because I was taking pictures in a
badger cull area."
Image caption Geograph tasks its
users with photographing geographical points on a map Image caption
It asks its users to step off the beaten path in search of
unphotographed squares
Geograph works under creative
commons, which means anyone can reuse the pictures so long as they
credit the photographer.
"I've had messages from Brazil
and China," said Mr Clarke. "They want to use the pictures
in their geography lessons and other people get in touch about local
family history."
And yet a huge percentage of
Geograph's photos must go unlooked at - the empty road junctions,
vast expanses of grassy fields and car-filled streets.
Ian Sykes, from Hull, has seen a few
of them. He is hoping to cover Yorkshire - all 12,000 sq km of it.
"I often take 500 a day and
upload 100 of them," he said. "Digital cameras are great
because you can take as many as you like.
Image caption The vast majority of
the site's pictures focus on empty city streets Image caption Ian
Sykes reckons Geograph's popularity is because Brits are "into
funny things" Image caption Mr Sykes is hoping to visit every
square kilometre of Yorkshire
"I think my object now is to
leave something after I go, after I die. I know that's a bit morbid.
"I've done a bit in Germany and
Geograph has not taken off there like it has in the UK. It must be
something to do with the British outlook; we must be into funny
things."
Before Mr Sykes had heard of the
website, he travelled the country taking photos of Sam Smith's pubs.
Did he get them all? "I think
so," he said. "That's 300 I've done. It took me two years
and I was looking for somewhere to put them and that was when I found
Geograph."
Kenneth Allen, from Omagh in
Northern Ireland, is rapidly closing in on his 100,000th upload.
"I just started small and then
it sort of got a hold of me," he said. "You start giving
yourself little targets."
Image
caption Like a lot of people on Geograph, Kenneth Allen got into the
site through walking
Image caption He uses the site as a
means of discovering new places
Mr Allen has managed to nab more
than 12,000 "first points" - squares that had not been
photographed before - which is more than anyone else on Geograph.
"I'm working with the OS map
and trying to fill in each grid square. I just like to go out and
take a flask with me and see what I can find.
"With Geograph I've discovered
more of the countryside than I ever did when I was walking."
Robin Stott, a director and trustee
at Geograph, argues the website's picture are not boring at all.
"Mundaneness is in the eye of
the beholder. Places such as housing estates, business parks, big
arable fields might seem mundane but when you explore them and dig
into the history, everywhere turns out to be interesting.
"The focus is always
unfashionable geography but, as we enter our second decade, Geograph
is developing as a historical record as well."
Users talk of Geograph as a means to
discover new places and leave memories of what our streets and towns
once looked like, rather than a place to show off great pictures.
As Mr Clarke puts it: "It's not
exactly a photography site, it's a history project."
