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A silver birch tree grows through the floor on the terrace of Hotel Polissia. The hammer and sickle is visible atop the distant building
Light switches in a bedroom of Hotel Polissia. The peeling paint is the result of 21 years decay.
Lobby of Hotel Polissia. The check-in desk is in the background. Marble wall cladding has been removed by looters.
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
The Waverley Cemetery opened in 1877 and is a cemetery located on top of the cliffs at Bronte in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. It is noted for its largely intact Victorian and Edwardian monuments. The cemetery contains the graves of many significant Australians including and the poet Henry Lawson and Australia’s first Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, who is interred at South Head.
View the entire set of Waverley Cemetery, Sydney photographs here
Graves in Waverley Cemetery overlooking the Pacific Ocean
Architecturally, Waverley Cemetery is significant in that it showcases examples of Stonemasonry and funerary art dating back from the 19th century,with features (such as the gates, buildings and fencing) that due to their intact nature are considered of outstanding aesthetic value.
Cross memorial in front of graves at Waverley Cemetery
Poetically, the juxtaposition of the tombs and memorials overlooking the pacific ocean of the sea makes the cemetery a unique place. The cemetery is a popular tourist attraction and is on the route of Bondi to Coogee coastal walk.
Row of graves at Waverley Cemetery, Sydney
View the entire set of Waverley Cemetery, Sydney photographs here
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010
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Bow of the SS Great Britain in the Great Western Dockyard, Bristol
Unique Design by Brunel
SS Great Britain was an advanced passenger steamship designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Steamship Company’s transatlantic service between Bristol and New York. While other ships had previously been built of iron or equipped with a screw propeller, Great Britain was the first to combine these features in a large ocean-going ship.
Glass roof covered with water creating an air seal around the hull seen from below
Stranded and Scuttled
When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat. However, her protracted construction and high cost had left her owners in a difficult financial position, and they were forced out of business in 1846 after the ship was stranded by a navigational error.
Sold for salvage and repaired, Great Britain carried thousands of immigrants to Australia until converted to sail in 1881. Three years later, the vessel was retired to the Falkland Islands where she was utilised as a warehouse, quarantine ship and coal hulk until scuttled in 1937.
Hull and glass air seal seen from ground level
Return to Bristol
In 1970, Great Britain was returned to the Bristol dry dock where she was first built. Now listed as part of the National Historic Fleet, Core Collection, the vessel is an award-winning visitor attraction and museum ship in Bristol Harbour, with between 150,000-170,000 visitors annually.
After Recovery she then spent two weeks in the Cumberland Basin, until a high enough tide occurred that would get her back through the locks to Bristol’s Floating Harbour, back to her birthplace, the dry dock in the Great Western Dockyard in which she had been built (now a grade II* listed building, it had been disused since bomb damage during World War II).
Public walkway next to the hull in the Great Western Dockyard dry dock
Restoration and design of the glass air seal around the hull
The original intent was to restore her to her 1843 state. However, the philosophy of the project changed in recent years and the conservation of all surviving pre-1970 material became the aim.
By 1998, an extensive survey discovered that the hull was continuing to corrode in the humid atmosphere of the dock and estimates gave her 20 years before she corroded away. Extensive conservation work began which culminated in the installation of a glass plate across the dry dock at the level of her water line, with two dehumidifiers, keeping the space beneath at 22% relative humidity, sufficiently dry to preserve the surviving material of the hull. This was completed, the ship was “re-launched” in July 2005, and visitor access to the dry dock was restored.
Detail of damage on the original riveted plates on the hull
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2009
On the same day I hear the announcement of the Apple iPad and the furore over how it may change the publishing industry I passed the empty shell of my favourite book store Borders in Oxford.
Empty interior of Borders Bookstore, Oxford
Closure Notice at Borders Bookstore, Oxford
Empty shop window after Closure of Borders bookstore, Oxford
Borders bookstore in Oxford is one of 45 stores in the UK to close all its branches in the UK on 22 December 2009. The chain went into administration earlier this month and had kept open all its stores while it attempted to find a buyer. Administrators MCR said all 45 Borders and Books Etc stores would close on 22 December. Borders has suffered from increased competition from online retailers and supermarkets. Borders employed 1,150 people in total. MCR has previously said Borders had “severe cash flow pressures” and that several suppliers had stopped or reduced its credit, which made suppliers less willing to trade with the retailer and made it difficult for it to replenish its stock levels.
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See more architectural photography in my book, Drawing Parallels
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010
Concert hall, Pripyat, Chernobyl
Pripyat 21 Years after Chernobyl (The Concert Hall), Giclee Print, 50×33cm, Edition of 25 + 1 A/P
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This image of a soviet sculpture behind a piano in the exclusion zone next to Chernobyl has been selected for the Royal West of England Academy Autumn Show
Cat no 403
Royal West of England Academy, Queen’s Road, Clifton, Bristol
1 November – 13 December 10.00-5.30pm Monday-Saturday 2009
The print was previously on show at the Architectural Association. In an exhibition entitled “Pripyat: 21 Years after Chernobyl”
Photography © Quintin Lake, 2010
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When reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in 1986 the result was the worst nuclear accident in history. Large areas of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were severely contaminated, requiring the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people.
Pripyat, 1km from the reactor, was designed as an exemplar of Soviet planning for the 50,000 people who worked at the power plant. A funfair, with bumper cars and Ferris wheel, was due to open two days after the reactor exploded.
These photographs, inspired by Robert Polidori’s earlier images of Chernobyl, were shot in 2007 over 5 hours, apparently the safe period of exposure. Although a Geiger counter was carried in case of localised high emissions, certain areas of vegetation which attract a higher concentration of radiation were avoided.
The physical devastation stems from looting and gradual building collapse, not from the explosion. Over the last ten years people have intruded regularly into the military exclusion zone, stealing everything from irradiated toilet seats to the marble cladding from hotel walls. Photographs of the town capture a memory of three traumas: the invisible radiation, the visible looting and the gradual collapse of a ghost town.
Hotel Polissia Terrace, Pripyat, Giclee Print, 50×33cm, Edition of 25 + 1 A/P
Pripyat, Chernobyl Exhibition
Pripyat: 21 Years After Chernobyl, photographs by Quintin Lake’ is on show at the Architectural Association Photo Library from Monday 12 May to Friday 6th June 2008, 10.00am to 6.00pm
Architectural Association Photo Library , 37 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3ES
Pripyat, Chernobyl Limited Edition Prints
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
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Concert hall with water damaged soviet relief sculpture and piano, Pripyat, Chernobyl
The looted seating area in the Palace of Culture theatre, Pripyat
Palace of Culture Theatre prop room with paintings of Lenin and dignitaries, Pripyat (Pripiat), Chernobyl, Ukraine
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
BUY PRINTS/LICENSE more Pripyat (Pripiat) 21 years after Chernobyl images here
Exercise books, Pripyat, Chernobyl Ghost town
Gas masks, Pripyat
Light shines across climbing bars and broken basketball hoop in a gymnasium. Pripyat, Chernobyl Excusion Zone
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
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Hospital reception with doctor's appointment boards, Pripyat
Lenin and the pot plant in the hospital, Pripyat, Chernobyl
Hospital waiting room with discarded pot plant.
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2007
Memories of Hall the Printers in Oxford prior to demolition, who judging scattered ephemera, printed a lot of 2000AD comics. Even though the machinery is long gone I love how resilient the marks and character of the previous occupants remain.
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Photography © Quintin Lake, 2009
