Gallery visit: Birmingham

During the half term holidays I took the time to travel to Birmingham by train, to visit the Ikon gallery and the Birmingham museum and Art gallery.  Throughout the day I took pictures to gather inspiration for my theme of ‘skyline’, including some panoramic shots that I absolutely love!

We decided to visit the Birmingham library a beautiful and eye catching piece of architecture caught our eye. On the outside of the building you van see the ‘flower of life’ a famous pattern within sacred geometry as it encases the building. Quite unusual as opposed to the many tower blocks in Birmingham.  I just had to get a photo of this building against the surprisingly clear sky for February.

Simply beautiful! in fact this trip has inspired me to think about using photography in my final outcome as I have found the best way to capture skylines is through interesting shots taken at unusual angles and places.  The pattern in juxtaposition to the blue sky is very eye catching. Looking from the inside out was just as beautiful. with the pattern encasing the skyline. with this photo i decided to add a filter in order to bring out the light and colours in the image.

Filtered image: Love how the crane lines up directly with the middle

We travelled around the library which was beautiful on the inside and headed to each balcony area taking photos from the different levels.here is the main Library area as seen from the second floor, as well as the view from the balcony on the third floor.

On the very top floor I decided to take panoramic shots. i was surprised at how well they turned out as they were taken on a mobile phone.  They turned out to be my favourite photos of the day, that I’d love to print out on a large scale.

I also took a panoramic photo from the inside (in the Shakespeare gardens). I like the way the light comes through the window. I also love how the light comes shadows the people on the rooftop so that they are almost silhouette like, looking out, over the horizon. in some images I tried to gather different perspectives and capture interesting shapes.

People looking like ants  upon an interesting geometric pattern.

BT tower dominating the sky

After this we visited the IKON gallery and viewed an exhibition by Roger Hiorns. His work was unique, different, but confusing to casual viewers.  His main focus is the transformation  of materials and objects, looking at the various aspects of modern life.  He often works with materials that have there own  unpredictable or uncontrollable growth patterns. For example this piece was made from copper sulphate brain matter on hardboard.

“Untitled”- Copper Sulphate on hardboard. This creates a very interesting almost crystal like texture. 

Some of his pieces were rather shocking such as these. 

Whilst at the gallery I read through their past exhibitions and discovered a new artist that i thought could be used as inspiration. Her name is Elizabeth Magill. Her pictures reflected what i want to achieve myself in my own works, so i thought she was a great link.   Scratches on wood are used to highlight yet cancel out the images. 

An example of Elizabeth’s work

After this we visited the Birmingham museum and art gallery. within this gallery many classical art pieces were exhibited as well as the history of the city.

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Throughout the day I gathered a lot of inspiration. Overall it was a really fun day and I collected some beautiful landscape shots.