Documentary – Witham Housing Development Update 2017

I originally covered housing development in Witham as part of my Decisive Moment assignment for the EYV module. That was the summer of 2016. I decided to revisit the locations in the summer of 2017 to record the changes.

I went out on a bright day although the conditions were different my aim was to capture the scene from a similar position and perspective. In some cases I was unable to stand in the original position but in most cases I captured the essence of the original image.

This was a thought provoking exercise as it made me re-assess the original intention of assignment. The brief for the assignment was to capture the decisive moment although I chose to adopt the opposite position. The mundane scenes showed the decisive moment for the future use of the land resulting from housing development.

The original images were a single point in time and without the submission text could only be assessed for composition, lighting, lines and shapes. I spent a lot of time in the edit analysing curves of the road and objects at the edges of the image.

The assignment always had the potential for following the development and the changing landscape of Witham. My process was to review the original images before I set out. I did not have any reference images with me as I took the ‘+1 Year’ images. This made it a more natural and organic process as I was working from memory and so felt less formulaic and mechanical.

The process of editing the ‘+1 Year’ images raised the question of what were the important aspects that needed to be retained. For example, in the ‘Balloons and Laughter’ image I remember thinking how important the car was in the image and its proximity to the entrance which was coned off. The most striking thing about this image were the two orange cones in the foreground. In fact I revisited this location on two or three occasions and ensured that the cones were in place.

However, for the ‘+1 Year’ image my visit occurred at a time the retail units were open so no cones in the entrances and exits. The question I had to ask was how important was this? Was the original image really about the cones? Not really, they just made for an interesting composition.

With the latest image sitting alongside the original image the viewer can focus more on the location and look for differences. Obviously the cones are not in there original positions but this conveys that the units are still in operation. Essentially not much has changed here. The viewer moves on to the next pair and can spot the differences.

The original intention was to make images that were ‘artistic’. The viewer was the judge of how successful that was. some of the images didn’t add anything more than a Google street view. By adding the second set of images changes the context of the set. The images now sit within the documentary genre as a before and after piece. The emphasis moves away from just compositional elements and becomes more about the location and changes to the place.

The images will be mainly of interest to Witham locals and I envisage the possibility of displaying them in a temporary gallery space in the town such as the Library, Town Hall or an unused retail unit made available by shopping centre landlords for community and cultural projects.

I have decided to name the pairs after their location rather than the subject of the image as this will change over time. It is possible that the location will also change its name but not as quickly as the objects in the image.

Hatfield Road (A12 Witham South) (2106)