 |
| Nottingham, September 2013 |
 |
| Looking Back Toward Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham, September 2013 |
 |
| Nottingham, September 2013 |
There’s a small
pocket of territory just behind the gallery that represents exactly the kind of
multi-layered city environment to which I’m habitually drawn and is dominated
by the interaction between two busy road junctions and a major elevated section
of Nottingham’s tram network. I was drawn
both to both the rather scruffy, interim world below the tramline and the
complex of road signage, gantries, power lines and CCTV cameras on the upper
level. The views over the tramway
towards the newish high-rise buildings beyond create exactly the kind of hard-edged,
dynamic futurism beloved of planners and architects.
 |
| Beneath The Tramlines, Nottingham, September 2013 |
Back at lower
ground level however, is a little zone of ramshackle small business and pre-war
public housing that creates a completely different mood. Inevitably, I’m now thinking about the
photographs I didn’t take and contemplating repeat visits to document the
juxtaposition of these different worlds in more detail.
 |
| Broadmarsh Car Park, Nottingham, September 2013 |
 |
| Broadmarsh Car Park, Nottingham, September 2013 |
The third major
strand running through all this is the way that the pedestrian routes are
geared to direct foot traffic through the Broadmarsh Shopping Centre across the
road. I ended up taking an unwanted
detour through this rather dated down-market mall (getting back almost to my
starting point) just to get the view I wanted of hazard graphics around the car park entrance. It seemed a perfect
illustration of my developing ideas about how systems of movement and
communication also become systems of control in the modern world.
 |
| Outbound Tram, Nottingham, September 2013 |
 |
| Inbound Tram, Nottingham, September 2013 |
I ended my little
excursion by photographing the trams gliding in and out of their elevated tram
stop. It was another subject that cried
out for moving imagery but, as I’ve just taken delivery of a half-decent video
camera, that’s only a matter of time. I
just need to learn how to use the blinkin’ thing properly now.
 |
| Nottingham, September 2013 |
No comments:
Post a Comment