Project 29 - Photographing a well known image

I chose for this project a photograph taken by T Leslie Hawkes in 1989 of Seathwaite Church in the Duddon Valley in the Lake District. The particular print was on a wall in a cottage that we had rented for a few days which was located in the Duddon Valley approximately a mile from the Church. Its attraction lay in part in the connection the cottage had with the Church - the cottage was the home of the rector -
 but also in the composition used by the original photographer. He has used the house on the left and the wall on the right to draw the viewer into the image and in particular towards the door of the Church. The Church forms approximately a third of the image but is the dominant feature. Hawkes chose not to take a photograph that contained more of the Church building and its surrounds (easily attainable by going round to the other side of the Church) but to provide just enough information for the viewer to know that it was a Church.

In taking this image I used the same house and the wall to position the camera, using a 24-70mm lens to zoom in to capture the same composition as the original. The two differences are the 'round' hedge at the corner of the house and the wall on the right from the foreground to the gate is higher by three courses of stones. The windows in the house have been replaced but with similar sash type windows. The only other discernible difference is the foliage behind the Church which was more abundant in the original photograph.

Why do I think Hawkes chose this particular viewpoint? I would suggest that he wanted to find a balance between the main subject - the Church - and the surrounds so that both were seen in context. A larger view of the Church from the other side of the Church would have taken it out of context as it would have been impossible to include anything but trees. It was important to link the Church with the community it served and this was achieved by including just a small part of the house on the left.

I took the following image approximately 75 yards from the Church using the 24 - 70mm wide angle lens to include as much as possible. The road behind the photographer after this point begins to bend and a reasonable view of the Church became more difficult. Further the inclusion of more buildings both on the left and the right would have diminished the impact of the main object evidence of which is beginning to show in the following image.

What did I get from this project? I visited a number of sites in the Lake District of areas that had been photographed (which is most of it) and it was a learning experience to try to work out from where the image I had in front of me had been taken. It was difficult to find the exact spot, sometimes because of changes, but also because by the use of different lenses and later cropping the image could be achieved from a surprising number of positions. For me the more interesting part was walking round the object and trying to establish why that shot from that position. Sometimes it was obvious but on other occasions I would have chosen a different shot no doubyt because of my particular preferences.