Water-land Deptford Creek Exhibition

About

Water-land is a series of photographic essays about Deptford Creek undertaken by a group of Architecture BA students from University of Greenwich. Situated in an old industrial area with a strong maritime character, Deptford Creek is a territory of contrasts: between water and land, between derelict warehouses and new development. As part of their teaching assignment, the students were asked to propose a series of architectural and landscape interventions within and around the creek. They used photography to discover latent qualities in the site and to investigate signs of human use and occupation. Experimenting with different types of photographic film and manual cameras, each student constructed their own narrative about the place. The images record fragments of the area, ranging from strangely familiar objects discovered such as discarded shoes or domestic items found in unusual settings, to strong industrial structures. Each one captures qualities specific to the creek in colour and movement, in moments between the changing tides of the river Thames and in the marks of human habitation. Ioana Marinescu comments: ‘It was extremely interesting to work with this group of students, who had in most cases never used film and manual cameras before, and to see them work with the limitations of the photographic medium to construct very clear stories about a place and come up with some beautiful and powerful images. We helped them print these in the darkroom, in order that they understand and exploit the creative ‘mistake' that can occur when you interact directly with the materials, in a process that is almost alchemical. With my teaching colleagues, Thomas Goodey and Naomi Shaw, I encourage a craft-like approach to teaching architecture through the use of photography, hand drawing and model-making. Viewfinder curator Louise Forrester comments: "Each of the students has responded in a very personal way, it's wonderful to see so many interpretations of one area. We're very excited to see how this photographic project influences the development of the students' architecture projects." The exhibition is running from the 14th October to the 25th October and is available free of charge to the public for this time.