FIRST SHOOT- 'DEVILS DROP' ABANDONED COAL MINE TRACK

First shoot

On the 2nd October 2017 I visited an old abandoned railway bridge which was used as a line for the coal miners, It is now known which as 'Devils Drop' which is located in Bedworth. Bedworth used to be a very popular place for coal mining as it used to not only provide coal for the whole of the country but jobs were created by these.

'Bedworth’s Black Diamonds'

For many centuries Bedworth was primarily a coal mining community. The first reference to the extraction of coal in the area was in the 13th century. Bedworth is on the eastern edge of the North Warwickshire coalfield where the coal outcrops at the surface, making it easier to extract. The Warwickshire coal-field covers an area of approximately 385 square kilometres, from Tamworth in the north to Warwick and Leamington in the south. Records show continuous working since the 13th century, particularly between Tamworth and Bedworth.

The opening of the Coventry to Bedworth canal in 1769 stimulated output and subsequent canal construction made Warwickshire coal competitive in London. Rapid railway development in the 19th century increased demand still further and deeper mines were exploited. Output increased from 500,000 tons annually in the 1850s from 20 small mines to 4,000,000 tons from 30 pits in 1909.

Reference: http://www.bedworth-society.co.uk/about-bedworth

I had planned to visit there was little lighting so I went at 6:50pm just as the sun had set.

I wanted to visit and photography this place especially because it links to some artists which explore the abandonment or past of a building, artists such as Djuno Tomsni are the type of artists I would like to experiment with so I need to look at the abandonment of a place which was used in the past but is in no use anymore.

When I visited I wanted to find graffiti, rust and urban decay as I believe they are very important aspects to acknowledging how old an object/place is, I wanted to find the left overs of what originally was once in use as an exploration of maybe re-creating what the scenery used to look like by using aspects of surrealism. I used an iPhone 6 and iPhone 7 camera to take the images.

In my opinion, I do not like the amount of greenery added to the colour of the photos as there is no way I am able to take them further, I am not able to Photoshop the images because there is nothing I can do to edit them due to amount of darkness involved.

My plan is to either record my experience first hand of the walk of the abandoned location or to get a Nikon camera and begin to photograph empty areas and graffiti, exploring with the use of colour .

When entering the location the sun was setting and due to the trees covering the camera from extracting natural lighting it became very hard to take images where we were able to capture what we saw in the way that we did, this is due to the camera actually focusing on the landscape and portrait images in a dark surrounding as it naturally lowered the brightness of the photos. The concept of me visiting such a place that entails the treasure of history and abandonment meant that I would be able to discover if there are any objects or materials to be found that could be significant towards my study. Furthermore, I wanted to visually see if I would be able to work with any of the images via the graffiti or layering of paint on top of such old and rusted made materials such as brick, However, When photographing I do not feel like I have gained a relation to the images that are taken by artists I have researched such as Sylvaine Margaine, a very unique artist how I was inspired by and wanted to try out his technique to see if it worked for me.

When entering the location I began to take images of how I very firstly saw it to see if I felt a certain way in which in matter of fact, I actually did, When standing in front of such a used, derelict place I instantly felt cold but in my head I were able to imagine the workers at work going down the steep hill with coal in a large container. After thinking this way I had a new, fresh idea which I believe could lead to a new route of experimentation and research; I had an idea of creating mini pieces of like an old, black and white image of a miner photographed doing their job, but cutting out the image and putting it on top of the images I photograph. I believe that this idea could actually begin to build a new focus of looking at collages and so with that in mind, I need to begin to research artists which use intricate surrealist collages, whilst juxtaposing images through maybe a change of colour, texture or shape- I could even transform or distort elements to creating another meaning in comparison to its original.

Although I captured graffiti within the images I just don't feel like it has a link to my own personal investigation and if I were to do anything with the images that do include graffiti, I would cut them out and experiment with sticking the image as a whole or parts of it to a collage, also, I believe that if I were to re do this shoot I would've came at a time n the day where natural daylight shone through the location, so I am really able to present what I saw first hand in the same format and same way.

My plan is to either record my experience first hand of the walk of the abandoned location or to get a Nikon camera and begin to photograph empty areas and graffiti, exploring with the use of colour.