Reverence and Remains at Lanercost Priory

I was attracted to the architectural shape in The Priory ruins and the repetition and rule of thirds in the window as they framed the natural world (which is my particular specialism). I used a red gel to the front of my lens to echo the violent tales of the monks that had lived at the priory as retold to us by the visiting historian and gothic literature expert which I found a particular highlight in my visit to Lanercost Priory.

I was given the incredible opportunity to work alongside and in collaboration with Photoworks and English Heritage with the theme of ‘Revenants and Remains’.

I am fascinated by the themes of mortality, decay, and the passage of time, which are recurring motifs Gothic work and as an artist, I am drawn to the dark, mysterious, and haunting beauty of Gothic photography. My work explores the eerie and disturbing, often inspired by the Gothic literature, architecture, and art of the past.

Through my photographs, I aim to create a sense of unease and intrigue, inviting viewers to enter a world that is both familiar and unsettling. I used a variety of techniques to achieve this, such as low light, high contrast, and dramatic angles, which enhance the ominous atmosphere of my images.

After considerable research into possible techniques for illustrating supernatural themes, I decided to go with zooming, as I felt that would illustrate the idea of “haunted” suitably.

I feel like this image illustrates the theme very well, as it looks like there’s a weird thing outside the window, with the lighting grabbing the attention of the viewer and make them look towards the bright light shining through I really did enjoy going out to Lanercost and participating in this project, I enjoyed visiting and exploring the location and loved some of the images I created for this project.

The main inspiration for my images comes from the modern-day common depictions of ghosts. I used slow shutter speed and white veil for the majority of my ghostly images to create translucent ghosts that move within the image and create an anxious feeling.

The ectoplasm image (alongside my other images) was edited to have a higher contrast, making it look like it is glowing in a similar way to the popular film ‘Goosebumps’. Lanercost Priory also inspired me because of the uneasy atmosphere within the image created by the parts of the ruined building that you can see within the images.

I produced these images as part of a live brief collaborating with PhotoWorks and English heritage. I enjoyed the experience and was inspired by different talks of the past of the priory and intended to produce work that reflects the ghosts of the monks that lived there.

When producing these images, we used different materials as an outfit to create a ghostly figure. I also used shadow to create some haunting images. The project overall was a success with me producing images that display ghostly figures. A personal highlight of this project was having the opportunity to work with well-respected organisations and different artists in producing the photographs as well as working on different ways to display your images.

The work I created at Lanercost priory highlights ghost like appearances and haunted architectural shots which illustrates the haunted heritage of Lana-cost Priory. I used various pieces equipment which include coloured gels, tripod, filters and 50mm lenses. One reason I chose to use red, and orange coloured gel’s is because it creates this vibrant but scary deception of the sky and shows off some amazing detail within not only the sky but also within the old architectural structures highlighting its history and roots. I also used a polarizing filter which created that dark and dreary sky that I wanted to capture. I worked with a fellow student of mine to create a ghost using a sheet over her which looked like what was imagined to be a ghost like figure, which worked great.

I became inspired at first during the discussions with Dale Townshend , professor of gothic literature and Dr Michael Carter, English Heritage Senior Properties Historian who shared many stories and facts which got me thinking creatively about the environment. Artist Sarah Sparks also helped me to be creative by presenting many props and ideas which we could try whilst at Lanercost Priory. I also seen many example pieces of work which allowed me to see artists development and thought prosses behind their images which made me challenge myself whilst shooting.

When hearing all the great ghost stories from the priory it really inspired this image in my head that I ran with going forward with shoots. I feel as if I put my own twist on what I see as being a supernatural entity would be like. A huge inspiration for me was looking at photos that were capture using long exposure create lines and blurs of motion which you can see makes its way into the fine choices. I wanted to give my images a unique look when doing research, I found a lot of old analogue images that had been taken using double exposures, I then edited the images to have dust and scrape added too them to give them a weathered look.

Approaching this opportunity, I informed my ideas and concepts by observing the work of artists whose work included motifs of the supernatural, specifically Simon Marsden who has captured the historical building in black and white. I enjoyed exploring the priory and history behind it alongside hearing numerous ghost stories from the historians at English Heritage.

My images were influenced by using external equipment like flashes and tripods and were further developed by Photoshop. Lanercost Priory has given me an opportunity to stretch myself as a photographer and tell a story through my imagery.

I am a photographer from Newcastle who takes great interest in architectural photography. During this project I was intrigued by working with slow shutter speed as I was trying to create ghostly figures within my work, and I found that the slow shutter speed allowed me to create blurry shadows and figures.

I was given two trips to Lanercost Priory on this project which gave me time to plan and bring props that i thought would work best within my images, I ended up using bed sheets and coloured gels. The time spent not at Lanercost was spent learning about ink transferring. This was a new skill to me, and I found it helped by creating distressed work which linked in with the ruins in Lanercost.

I was offered the opportunity to visit Lanercost Priory in collaboration with English heritage and Photoworks and was asked to take images that relates back to revenants and remains and I have successfully done that with the use of technical skills I have used in previous projects with using gels to create a red tinge to my images and using equipment kindly offered to me such as veils to help me create these ghost like images and have done that to full affect and believe that they are my most successful images for this Revenants and Remains project.

The inspiration for this photo came from looking at different photographers. I wanted to capture the feeling of movement and light. It was also a great opportunity to get a better perspective of the subject.

I have always been fascinated by ghosts and other supernatural phenomena. I conducted extensive research on the subject and found numerous examples of incredible paranormal activity. I was able to gain a better understanding of how these things work and why they are believed to exist.

By enabling us to create these types of images also helped us get a better understanding and ideas of different photos that you are able to capture when doing these shoots.

I was happy at the outcome of my final images as I felt very creative in this to be able to capture ghost stories in a photo. We were able to collect a series of images over the four weeks that we went to Lanercost Priory, which helped us to be able to create our final images.