LUVTHECITY INTERVIEW - 12.03.10
WE MEET LOCAL PHOTOGRAPHER MARK WHITFIELD, WHO HAS CHRONICLED THE CONSTRUCTION OF MEDIACITY AT SALFORD QUAYS WITH OVER 12,000 PHOTOS...
"In August 1995, I started working as a senior programmer in Salford Quays. Back then there were very few landmarks and the landscape was relatively flat. You could drive around the Quays in a giant ‘C’ shape without stopping at roundabouts and there were only two junctions, in and out.
The first digger appeared on the then grassy, empty land of MediaCityUK in June 2007. I had taken some photographs a few weeks before, looking from the rear of Broadway over to the Imperial War Museum, Designer Outlet and The Lowry Centre, this is how it looked...
Two years later, this shot was no longer possible as the large, multi-storey car park had blocked the view...
The MediaCityUK Photographic Timeline currently consists of 12,000 pictures taken over a period of two and a half years. I have been able to get close with the development site without being obtrusive. I take the photographs at 9+ Megapixels with zooming between 1 - 50 times, meaning I've been able to watch each crane be erected at 'electronic' close quarters.
I wouldn't describe myself as a professional photographer, just an enthusiastic one (great that they have put better cameras on mobile phones, I use the Samsung Omnia II). I tend to spend money on the best, compact camera I can to get development shots, currently I'm using a Panasonic Lumix TZ7 (TZ5 before that). Each picture in isolation maybe flawed for those with a more purist, professional eye, but the power is in the vision and in the coming together of photos in a timeline, not just one or two snaps.
I was a little more obsessive in the first couple of years as the site grew out of the ground. In these early days, it was easy to discern the changes on a week by week basis. I would sometimes have up to 400 shots per month (or more) to archive online (bear in mind I work 500 yards away and would sometimes pop over to the Designer Outlet for a coffee). The speed at which the BBC main office concrete cores came out of the ground was impressive, almost at full height within a few weeks...
As the development is nearing completion, I'm finding it much harder to see the day-to-day changes, such is the amount of scaffolding, iron and brickwork on the site. Work on the Metrolink line is well underway and this will take workers right up to the site when it's complete. I took these two photographs last week, March 7th, 2010...
If you look closely you'll see the work on the new pedestrian bridge which will take people on the War Museum side of the Quays straight across MediaCityUK without having to cross the current Millennium Bridge near the Lowry Centre...
I tend to take pictures from three main locations, the Imperial North War Museum, the Designer Outlet multi-storey car park and from the rear of Broadway. In the latter, pictures get increasingly less interesting as the view gets more blocked off. Each picture on the timeline is date stamped and I also have a link to an abridged timeline, which provides shots from the exact same position at the Designer Outlet car park. This currently consists of about 300 pictures (at a slightly higher resolution to the detailed timeline, 1024 x 768) taken from June 2007 until now.
To accompany the MediaCityUK timeline, I have started a special interest group on the professional networking site, LinkedIn. This is for those who have an interest in the Quays or the MediaCityUK development. This group currently has close to 1000 members and is growing quickly as interest in the MediaCityUK development increases. If you'd like to join us
click here
I've also set-up a thread on Skyscrapercity, this allows visitors to read comments on the development and also post their own pictures. To date, this thread has had nearly 200,000 hits, more than any other for the Greater Manchester area. If you want to read more
click here
I go by the alias NonStopMark, so say hello if you're online!"
ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER
Mark Whitfield is the author of the MediaCityUK Photographic Timeline Journal. He lives in North Bolton and works in Salford Quays as an IT Manager
Mark's Photographic Journal
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