I didn’t take many pictures on the weekend of April 21-2 because I was at a photographic workshop. If that seems odd, perhaps I should say I was running it, although facilitating would be a better word. Based at the View Tube, overlooking the London Olympic site during one of the last few weekends when that viewpoint will be available to the public, there were some disappointments, but I think we managed to have an enjoyable and fruitful time.
Olympic traffic management sign and Olympic torch
As usual, the main joy of the workshop was seeing how other photographers tackle the same challenges, in particular the others taking part in the workshop. Shortly I hope to be able to link to a mini web-site of some of the work that we produced which the Museum of London promised to host.
Olympic warm up area and former Bryant & May match factory, April 2003
I started the course by trying to show how other photographers and film makers had reacted to the area, including of course my own work on the River Lea/Lee Valley 1980-2010 web site some of which is also in the Blurb book Before the Olympics, but also showing quite a range of other work, including images by the photographers featured on David Boulogne’s 2012 pics blog (which also has a little of my own work.) It was a shame that the View Tube didn’t have the facilities to display this or own work more than dimly.
One of the buildings overlooking the venue was of course the former Bryant & May match factory (above, taken a week before the course) which has been in the news this week as there are likely to be guided missiles based on one of its towers during the Olympics. It would certainly be an ideal site from which to attack the Olympic site, but hard to see it as a good defensive position, and in the thankfully unlikely event that any of the missiles was fired and hit a target the result could be terrible casualties in the East End.
We didn’t have any special access to the Olympic area, and the closures already in force were something of a pain, requiring some lengthy detours. Of course many of the paths that used to give access to the area – such as this one – were closed years ago.
This picture illustrates some of the changes that have taken place. A few years ago the path here would have been narrow, surrounded by grass and low bushes and empty. The view would not have been a huge building site with the stadium and other venues but a busy and thriving industrial area with factories, oil storage and office buildings. Somewhat run down – with some of the premises serving as artist’s studios – including the interestingly named ‘Tate Moss’, in 2007 when I took the picture below already severely affected by Olympic blight and the imminent demolition. Now there is serious pedestrian congestion.
More pictures from the area in Feb 2007 on My London Diary.
You can now see more of the pictures I took while walking around the area with the other photographers on My London Diary in Olympic Course Day 1 and Olympic Course Day 2.
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My London Diary : Buildings of London : River Lea/Lee Valley : London’s Industrial Heritage
All photographs on this and my other sites, unless otherwise stated are by Peter Marshall and are available for reproduction or can be bought as prints.
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