After a week or two of posting colour images, today marks a return to black and white. I still have a number of colour images from the two recently shot rolls that I haven’t posted here though, so maybe they’ll get an airing if I feel a splash of colour is required.

Today’s image is of the stairwell in The Hepworth gallery in Wakefield. I visited the gallery back in the middle of the month before social distancing rules were introduced, and then enforced by the nationwide lock-down. The gallery, along with other such venues around the country, has now closed until further notice, so I was lucky to get to attend when I did.

The reason for my visit was an exhibition about the relationship between the photographer Bill Brandt, and the artist and sculptor Henry Moore, who had met during the second world war when they were both documenting the plight of people sheltering from air-raids in London’s Underground stations. Their relationship continued with an interest in a number of shared themes throughout their careers, including the human body, the landscape, industry and others.

While I was predominantly interested in Brandt’s photography over Moore’s artworks, the latter’s sculptures are wonderful to see in person and made for a number of interesting photographic opportunities, some of which I’ll be posting over the coming days.

For now though, here’s a more mundane subject, but one which I think has made for a nicely satisfying picture – namely the mid-level landing in the gallery’s stairwell. I liked the shapes, textures, tones and symmetry (although it’s not really symmetrical).

Minolta SRT 101b, Rokkor 50mm f/1.7 & Ilford HP5+ (@800).

Taken on 14 March 2020