Nancy Johnson

The way I wanted to interpret this project was to capture structures and architecture that looked tired or abandoned. I started off researching a photographer named Keith Dotson, I love how he captured every detail of dilapidation by putting the images into black and white it exaggerated the decrepitness. I was also inspired by how he zooms closer onto stone work details capturing all kinds of shapes. Which represents to me that the buildings were once beautiful and had a lot of hard work and time put into them, but people have let them go and moved on. 

I later on looked at Richard Nickel, who was a polish architectural photographer based in Chicago. During the urban regeneration of the 1960s and 1970s, 19th century buildings in Chicago were being demolished. Among these were the work of Louis Sullivan designing in the Prairie School style. By this time a lot of the buildings were being neglected. Nickel's mission was to photograph these beautiful buildings before they were destroyed and forgotten. Nickel said "Great architecture has only two natural enemies: water and stupid men." 

Nickels work inspired me to photograph these buildings so they can be remembered before they go. I decided to photograph a beautiful old language school before it got knocked down as the building wasn't in demand like most language schools. I wanted to show the building in a light where it looked run down to show how buildings can become unwanted.