This is my proposal for LPE’s self directed project – Assignment 5.

Project Brief

This project will explore the plight of mills in Stroud’s Five Valleys.  The influence of these mills and the industry they supported are significant in Stroud which can be seen in the names of roads, estates, factories, and the many mills around the valleys too.  However, many are now being dismantled, left to ruin, or converted into other purposes.  The project will explore the three ways in which the mills are changing and question if Stroud’s heritage is slowly being lost.  Before starting the project, I am not fully sure what message the project will ultimately conclude, I aim to explore this as part of the project itself and plan to evolve what I capture and the messaging as I progress. 

Influences and Research

To an extent, I expect the style of Lewis Baltz to play quite an influence as I hope to dispassionately capture what is there in front of me today rather than attempt to portray a particular message within a single image by using any kind of clever juxtaposition.  I expect that it will be the series of images caught in this way that will tell the message by itself. 

It is likely that I will research other photographers who contributed to New Topographies. 

Frank Watson and his Soundings from the Estuary is perhaps a collection that most closely resembles a set of images similar to what I have visualised creating before I start.  

I also plan on researching the mills I photograph and the topic of mills in Stroud in general by working with Stroud’s Museum in the Park which today presents extensive exhibitions on these topics.  

Treatment

I have mentioned that the mills have: started to decay, been dismantled, or put to other uses.  I plan on capturing all three types of mill.  I am not yet sure if my final presentation will be of one classification in a typography style, or if I will assemble the images, perhaps into a series of typtrich presentations that present a contrast between the different destinies of the mills.

Potential Outcome

I think that, other than publishing on the web, there is a possibility of presenting these images in Stroud’s museum. 

Resources

Some of the mills I plan to capture are located in relatively non-accessible places within Stroud’s valleys.  I may resolve this issue by making use of drone photography but have yet to explore if it is possible to create a sufficiently consistent set of images using a combination of my normal camera and drone captured images.   

Schedule 

I intend to complete my research by the end of September 2021 and capture my images throughout October and carry out final editing and assembly in November.