Showing posts with label derelict building. Show all posts
Showing posts with label derelict building. Show all posts

Thursday, 15 May 2014

Memory Lane

Today, over on Veronica Varlows blog - http://dangerdame.com/2014/05/15/lets-play-a-game-a-picture-and-a-wild-rock-and-roll-life-tour-story/ - she asked us all to pick a photo, and to tell the story behind it. This is a wonderful way to remember experiences you may have forgotten. So this is mine, and it's related to a photoshoot. 

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Near my house, about a 20 minute walk away, lies Piercefield Mansion. It is an abandoned, derelict building, which used to house some of the richest people in town. The most explored section, and my personal favourite is the servants quaters. It's attatched to the stables. Everything is over grown with nettles and trees, are breaking in through the window panes. 
Stable doors with rought iron are hanging from rusted hinges...fire places stand in crumbling walls, fire replaced with wild flowers.
One evening, having not used my camera in a long time, I roped in some friends to join me in a photoshoot. In the setting sun, we traipsed through woodland, and fields full of sheep to reach the falling walls. Ignoring every 'keep out' sign and every 'dangerous building' warning. Covered in nettle stings, and warm from the trek, we made our way to a previously unexplored part of the mansion. 
It was so overgrown. And I basked in the knowledge of how long ago it was since someone else had stood in this building. The pink paint was chipping off the wall, the roof was nothing but wooden slats, which was filtering in bursts of the lowering sunlight. There were stairs that led to a door, which opened onto nothing; the second story floor having fallen through. An upturned spring bed frame lay in the brambles, and further on a stand alone bath, filled with rain water.
And this is where we did our shoot. I got some truly lovely shots. And we were all overcome with the feeling of solitude and knew that we were stood in a part of someones history that would never be remembered.
(For anyone curious as to the final photos I took, you can see them here;https://www.facebook.com/media...
Or more photos of just the building itself here; https://www.facebook.com/jade.... )



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My next post will be a review of The VeganKind Monthly Subscription Box #7.
And if that makes no sense to you, all will be revealed in my next post.

Sunday, 5 January 2014

The White Rabbit.

A major influence for my photography are books. Things I'm reading can really effect my though process and ideas for a shoot. For example; I am currently reading George RR Martin and Tolkien, this has my mind swirling with elves and hobbit holes, dragons and wonderful landscapes. The below photos have some pretty obvious connections to 'Alice In Wonderland' - a wonderful story, that I've studied time and time again. Once more Jadene Van Dyk models for me, wearing 'Lady Alluras Latex' including a bunny tail and rabbit ears. Very white rabbit-esque. About a twenty minute walk from where I live is a fascinating abandoned mansion. It's very run down, beat up and overgrown, but its stunning. I've used it for a few shoots. And I thought all the growth here would work nicely for this shoot - and with complete honesty I was struggling to find somewhere else.
The stables, have and always will be, my favourite area of the mansion, and you can see them in the picture directly above. There is so much history and beauty there. The location really tells a story, I feel privellaged whenever I shoot there. And I'll hopefully be shooting again there soon, because there is still a whole building I have yet to break into - uh, I mean, explore.
Model; Jadene Van Dyk. Latex; Lady Alluras Latex. Wig; Geisha Wigs