A visit to the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre

The Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre reopened after a major refurbishment in early February, with its first major exhibition being a retrospective of the work of Andreas Gursky.

Andreas Gursky is an acclaimed German photographer, well known for his large-scale pictures, so a visit was on my list when I was last in London.

This exhibition also marks the beginning of the Hayward Gallery’s 50th anniversary year. The Gallery is nothing much to look at from the outside and the exterior architecture is often described as brutal. However, the two year refurbishment has focussed on allowing the gallery’s pyramid roof lights to bathe the spaces below in natural light, as was in the original design.

The Southbank architecture

There are some hard lines and angles in the design of the Southbank Centre buildings but this can give some good lead lines and suited mono processing using the Fuji Arcos film stimulation.

travel photography - travel photograher - images from a visit to london this one in monochrome using the lead the top of a wall to take you towards the royal festival hall and the london eye beyond it
Richard Spurdens Photography – Concrete views Royal festival hall – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/680 @ f / 5.6 ISO 200
travel photography - travel photograher - images from a visit to london a view to three tower block at are being constructed with the cranes and of strong lines running vertically and cross wise in the image - what attracted me to this image was the the vertical lines crossed by the hand rail against the darkened sky
Richard Spurdens Photography – Tower and Cranes II – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/900 @ f / 8.0 ISO 200

Lots of new tower blocks are being constructed near the Southbank Centre. I was looking to capture the feeling of the cranes towering over the rising building in the two images below.

travel photography - travel photograher - images from a visit to london this one in monochrome showing the new towers been constructed surrounded by the tower cranes reaching up to the sky
Richard Sprudens Photography – cranes and towers – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/1700 @ f / 8.0 ISO 200

The Fuji Acros film simulation plus a red filter work for this one, which made the building and cranes stand out against the dark clouds.

Gallery viewing

But the main purpose of this visit was to view the images of Gursky. It was certainly worth the visit to see his range of work and some great large scale images. His images (often taken from a high vantage point) certainly have impact.

As the gallery information says : ‘these images make use of a ‘democratic’ perspective that gives equal importance to all elements of his highly detailed scenes’.

The newly refurbished Gallery’s pyramid roof lights seemed to work well and did bathe the spaces below in natural light, which made getting a few images of people viewing the images a lot easier.

As the gallery allows photography, it also gave me the opportunity to capture some more images for my Gallery viewing projects – some of which I have included below.

travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images two visitors lean forward towards a large image of a landscape the angle make the image as the rest of the Image is squares and vertical lines
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood gallery Gursky series – Gallery viewing I -Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/180 @ f / 2.0 ISO 800
travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images in this one three man standing at one image on the floor a young student sits on the floor looking at the same image but her trainers are illuminated and this makes it different image
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series – Gallery views Gursky II -Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/180 @ f / 2.0 ISO 800

The illuminated shoes of the woman seated on the floor attracted me to this one.

travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images in this the four people adopt different viewing looks
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery viewing the Gursky images series – Gallery views Gursky III – Model:X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/150 @ f / 2.0 ISO 800
travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery all the visitor in this image are standing at different spaces in the frame no image are visible but a young lady with shoes that light up draws your attention
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series -Gallery views Gursky VI – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/210 @ f / 2.5 ISO 1600

Often an opportunity comes along that makes a good different image – as per the couple seated below.

travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images in this image two visitors are sat back to back on a small bench he is reading his guide she is looking at other visitor below and behind her
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood gallery series – back to back viewing – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/125 @ f / 2.0 ISO 1600

These next three images try to show the scale of Gursky images on display, with a viewer included to help with the idea of the scale.

travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images in this image a visitor is stood in the front of a large image of white cloud shapes he seem to make a pleasing shape within the image
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series – Gallery views Gursky VIII – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/220 @ f / 2.5 ISO 1600
travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images, in this image a visitor wearing a brown jacket which seem to make the colours of image he is stood in front of
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series – Gallery views Gursky XVI – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/180 @ f / 3.2 ISO 800
travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery this visitor has a blue jumper with matches the wall colours she is viewing a large image of strips of green grass and then a large strip of water
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series – Gallery views Gursky XV – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/180 @ f / 2.8 ISO 800

My favourite image of “people viewing the images” was the Rückblick (the title of which translates as ‘review’). The results are below.

travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images a man with a walking stick stand and views the fashion shot of the four head of state from the back sat in front of a red wall
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood gallery Gursky image series – Gallery views Gursky XVII – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/140 @ f / 2.0 ISO 800
image taken in the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images
Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/200 @ f / 2.2 ISO 1600
travel photography - travel photograher - colour image from a visit to the hayward gallery focusing on the visitors viewing the Gursky images there are numerous visitors all with different and interesting poses again shoot in front of the famous shot of the four head of state from the back sat in front of a red wall.
Richard Spurdens Photography – Haywood Gallery Gursky series – Gallery views Gursky X – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/200 @ f / 2.2 ISO 1600

So the visit to the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre was fruitful in terms of seeing the work of Andreas Gursky and seeing results of the refurbishment of the location. It was also good for getting some more images of my Gallery viewing project.

Certainly recommend a visit in the future.

The final image is a colourful stairway, processed using the Fuji Velvia/Vivid stimulation.

architecture photography - architecture photographer - colour image of the the bright yelllow concrete steps which you can take to the finnish rooftop sauna and bar
Richard Spurdens Photography – Yellow steps to the southbank center – Model: Fuji X-T2 Lens: XF18mmF2 R 1/320 @ f / 5.6 ISO 200

April Images

A selection of image taken during the month of April, hence the title April Images.

As I seem to be failing at the moment to get my Blog posts going on a regular basis, I am trying this approach of having a posts each month where I can just add image and a little text about them. I keep taking lots of images but never seem to get them into a blog post.

Lets see if I can keep adding images into the post.

image shot at bradford foster square station on a mist april morning
Model:X-E1 Lens: XF27mm F2.8
image shot at bradford foster square station on a mist april morning
Model: X-E1 Lens: XF27mm F2.8
image shot at bradford foster square station on a mist april morning
Model: X-E1 Lens: XF27mm F2.8

Spotted in Leeds

What attracted me to making these images was the lead lines on the platform and the misty red light at the end of the platform, it a long platform and seem to work using the lines to take you in towards the mist in the distance.

image showing the leeds bid team using a steam cleaner of the paving stones in the millinumn square
Model: X-E1 Lens: XF27mm F2.8

Just loved all the blues in this one


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