Photography Student captures Plymouth landmarks in a new light

BA (Hons) Photography student Michael Cole from Plymouth College of Art has juggled his studies this year with the task of taking photographs of various Plymouth landmarks for a new book called Insights Into Plymouth due to be launched next week.

21-year-old student Michael is currently in the final year of his degree at the city’s Art College and he has lived in Plymouth all his life. He became involved in the publication after responding to a request from Plymouth based community interest group FOTONOW, which develops photographic and educational projects across the South West.

The author of the book is Ray Glasson, a member of Southway based writers’ group “The Portal Writers”. The book contains poems and facts about some of the most renowned, obscure, loved and unloved landmarks in and around Plymouth, each accompanied by one of Michael’s photographs.

After Michael initially met with the author back in January, his task was to read and interpret the text and represent it using photography. He says: “I wanted to photograph the landmarks in a way that people had never seen them before and one of my favourite images in the book is the one I took of the Civic Centre.

“I think that the book shows a different perspective to many existing publications aimed at visitors to Plymouth. Although it covers some of the well-known ‘tourist’ attractions like Smeaton’s Tower our main aim was to cover those that are less well-known such as the Camera Obscura.

“Having lived in Plymouth all my life it was surprising to me how little I knew about the history behind some of the more obscure landmarks. The project has actually influenced my current BA Photography project, which will look at the various plans to re-develop Plymouth’s city centre and surrounding areas.”

Michael was also involved in the layout and design of the inside pages of the book while Matthew Pontin from Fotonow, who is also a Photography lecturer at Plymouth College of Art, oversaw the project and designed the front and back cover.

This was an entirely new project for Michael who says: “I learned a lot, not just about the subject history within the book but also about the production of publications and how photographs can illustrate text. It’s something that I’ve very much enjoyed working on and would welcome any opportunity to do so again.”

Michael will be attending the book’s launch evening which is taking place in Plymouth on Thursday 1 December from 6pm at Waterstones bookshop on New George Street. All are welcome to attend and perhaps even purchase a copy of this truly unique publication.

Image: Courtesy of Michael Cole, showing the city's Breakwater Fort

For more information visit http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/prospectus/Degree-and-Honours/BA-Topup/BA-(Hons)-Photography-(3-Year)/PHFT1A1213