Hi guys
I've recently been involved in helping to put together a calendar for the local charity I do some voluntary work for.
A couple of months back, they had the idea of selling a (2014) calendar to raise funds. Each department of the centre would be allocated a page (i.e. a month). On each page would be an image, and a short 'mission statement' about the work they do. They had the idea to manipulate the photographs of the various personnel to make the final images convey the work of each department in a humorous and quirky way.
To get the idea off the ground, they've managed to secure sponsorship to cover the cost of printing the calendars, but were looking around and expecting to pay for a photographer to capture the images, and a graphic designer to assemble the images in Photoshop. "I'll give that part of it a go for you" I said, before I had chance to realise just what I was letting myself in for!
Anyway, I've been busy beavering away taking photos of the staff and volunteers and creating the images in my humble version of Photoshop Elements. The most difficult part has been visualising the finished images, and then sitting down with each page's designer to assess what can and can't be done within the limits of the image-manipulation software, and then ensuring each person is correctly posed so that the final image will look 'natural', even though they will obviously have been staged. It's getting close to being finished now, and I'll be sure to let you see/buy the finished product once it's completed
However, for some of the images, I've been wandering around Worcester with my camera to shoot the backgrounds for some of the images.
It wasn't until I started snapping images of Worcester many years ago that I realised just how beautiful our city is, but also how 'hideous' it is in places too.
A lot of this architectural ugliness is now present as a direct result of a series of completely disgraceful and unforgiveable planning decisions taken by the City's governing Council in the 1960s and early 70s.
This wanton demolition of some truly historic and irreplaceable architecture to make way for 'functional' yet abominable concrete monoliths is now justifiably referred to as
The Rape Of Worcester.
By far and away the biggest crime was the destruction of England's last remaining Cathedral Lychgate (a covered gateway into the Cathedral grounds where coffins were laid before the ceremony of being buried in the Cathedral graveyard). They knocked it down and built the now infamous 'Lychgate Shopping Centre' on the site.
Nearby to the site of the Lychgate, the bulldozers also flattened an old row of shops, one of which was the music shop once owned by Sir Edward Elgar's father. They used the razed ground to build a concrete hotel and multi-story car park on.
The only (remotely) saving grace of this decision is that the car park's circular design does allow for the occasional 'abstract' photo:
In 1962, another unbelievable decision was taken allowing the construction of Worcester Technical College. Not only did they allow the buildings to be constructed from concrete, they permitted this monstrosity to be sited alongside the River Severn, smack between the stunning architecture of our 11th century Cathedral (although a religious structure had been on the site since 680AD) and the dominating spire of St Andrews Church (the spire is affectionately referred to by locals as 'The Glover's Needle', in recognition of the City's once thriving glove industry).
Here's a shot from the river bridge - although partially hidden by the trees, the college can clearly be seen in the centre of this photo:
Here's a few more shots of the Cathedral:
And here are a few shots of Laslett's Almshouses.
I snapped these photos on the same expedition that I took the photo of the car park above. The poignancy being that these beautiful buildings are less than 200 feet from that car park.
I hope you enjoyed this little bit of our local history, and the photos
