Documenting History - Wigan Market and The Galleries

Documenting history is an important use of photography, perhaps the most important. Be it a global conflict or the birth of a child, photography is right in the forefront, capturing images that are viewed for decades afterwards by the people involved and their descendants. Ths week I wanted to share a few images of a local landmark that has one last christmas before it becomes a footnote in history and only photographs and memories remain.

Recently our local council approved plans to demolish Wigan Market and The Galleries shopping mall in Wigan town centre. This did not come as a surprise as the council and various property developers have been wanting to redevelop that area of the town centre for over a decade. It isn't age that is driving the redevelopment plans as the current Wigan Market Hall and The Galleries were only built in the mid 1980's to replace the old market and it's historic shopping arcades that occupied the site for a century,

The development was a great success and in the mid 2000's the council sold The Galleries and Wigan Market to a private consortium for a large chunk of money. At the time both the Market and The Galleries were full and the shops were thriving. Wigan was a great place to go shopping and many national retailers had premises in the town. It was no mirror of the city center shopping districts in Manchester or Liverpool, it was a great Lancashire town that had finally made progress after the closure of the coal mines and weaving mills that dominated the town and drove the local economy for over 200 years.

The financial crash of 2008/9 was blamed for shops closing down, but also a factor was the new owners hiking up the rent before the financial crisis happened. Some retailers could not afford it and the closures began as they relocated to cheaper premises. The financial crisis saw several long established businesses in the town close their doors for good, many of whom were small family run shops with a few national retailers also taking their bow in the following years.

The Galleries and the Market never recovered and plans were drawn to convert the area to accomodate the legendary Wigan nightlife with nightclubs, restaurants, a bowling alley and a cinema all featuring prominently. Those plans did not come to fruition and the developers involved sold their interests in the town to another developer who immediately drew up different plans. When those proposals fell through the council made an offer and bought The Galleries and Wigan Market for less than a tenth of what they sold it for a decade earlier.

For a while the retailers thought The Galleries and Wigan Market would finally get some much needed investment and rents would be lowered to an affordable rate. The council had other ideas and plans were drawn up to demolish the market quarter and replace it with apartment buildings. This would not be so bad but for the relative youth of the current buildings, built in the mid 1980's and opened in 1988 to replace the old market hall that had stood for a century and was sorely in need of work to bring it up to modern standards.

Thirty years is not a long time for a building. The current buildings were built by tradesmen who took pride n their work and by young apprentices from Wigan who were proud to contribute their growing skills to a development that won awards for its design and was a joy to go shopping there. Now its days are numbered and it makes me sad to see a local landmark be allowed to decline in order to make way for housing that local people may not be able to afford. I am going to try to capture what I can on film.

I usually photograph local landmarks for the simple pleasure of seeing them change with the seasons and the light. This was different, I did so with an urgency to document the life of the landmark before it is gone forever. I will speak more about Wigan Market in the run up to Christmas and take some colour photos whilst I still can. Until then here's a few I shot with my Pentax MV1 and Hoya HMC 28mm f/2.8 on New Classic EZ400 film. I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account you can visit using the link below.

Wigan Market and The Galleries 

Making the best of a bust

 This week I had a plan. I was going to attempt making some Trichrome images, which is to take three B&W film shots of a composition using a red, a green and a blue filter, one on each image to filter the three basic wavelengths of light. The plan was then scan them and merge them in my editing software to produce a colour photograph. It is a long known concept. Panchromatic film is sensitive to light across the spectrum and filtering out one of the red, blue and green wavelengths is how you create each negative. Bringing them together with some photoshop wizardry produces a colour image as if by magic. There are helpful video's on you tube that explain it far better than I can.

That was the plan....

Taking the photographs wasn't a problem. I shot a roll of Ilford HP5, a film I know is capable of producing trichrome images, but my choices of camera and lens was a bit rushed. I figured I would use my F801s and my 24-120mm zoom and give myself plenty of options. A lighter camera with a prime lens, either 28mm or 50mm would have been a better choice as I also used my light travel tripod and that was a mistake. The F801s is a heavy camera and the 24-120mm is a large lump of metal and glass. No matter how tight I fixed everything, the camera would soon begin to nose dive so I didn't really get three shots with the same framing.

My filters were very much up to the task of filtering out red, blue and green wavelengths of light, but my filter holder does a great job of holding the filters tightly. Easing them out of the holder was an exercise in trying to hold three things at once and keeping the cameral pointing in the right direction. In short, I didn't think this through properly before diving into it.

The day wasn't a total bust as I took my Nikon D700 with me and was able to capture some wonderful autumn colour on a tree in the park. It was a bright display of orange and yellow against the trees that still have some greenery so late in the year. That camera never ceases to amaze me with its beautiful colour rendition and, paired with my Tamron Adaptall 2 28-70mm zoom, the scenery comes alive.

Yes, I use a manual third party lens designed for film cameras on a digital autofocus camera. I love this combination and what it brings to my photography. It makes me think, exercises my brain and the photo's didn't need much editing in Affinity Photo to show what it is capable of.

I finished off my roll of Ilford HP5 with some shots around the Park and Wigan Parish Church. Mostly compositions I have used in the past, but each time I take those compositions I get better at it. I developed and scanned the film later on that day. I was a little disappointed that I made some rookie mistakes with my gear, but when I saw the scans on my computer I wasn't too disheartened, I managed to capture some decent photos. This was a valuable lesson in thinking things through before jumping straight in to a new skill. It hasn't put me off and I will definitely be trying to redeem myself in the not too distant future.

Here's a few photo's I am happy with from my day out, both film and digital. Never think you have made a complete bust of a photowalk, there are always some photo's worth sharing. I have added them to albums on my Flicker account that you can visit using the links below. I hope you enjoy them.

Autumn 2021

Ilford HP5 - Nikon F801s

Fun with a Zorki 4 and Jupiter 8 50mm f/2

 My recent escapades with my FED 2 and Industar 26m 50mm f/2.8 had me thinking about the quality of the lens. It's not the smoothest operating lens I have ever used. It's not the worst either, but it's lumpy and needs to be stripped down, cleaned and fresh grease applied to it's focusing mechanism. Not being one to mess about with stripping lenses down too often, I decided to see if I could find a better lens and went hunting for a Jupiter 8 50mm f/2, a lens with a good reputation amongst the Soviet rangefinder afficionados. I spotted a reasonable one on ebay attached to a Zorki 4 that looked reasonable too. I put a bid in and a few days later it was mine for the princely sum of £36.

When it arrived I was glad to see the camera and lens looked much better up close than on the photo's and it came with a decent black leather case. I gave the camera a good inspection and couldn't find any reason why I shouldn't throw a roll of film in it and give it a try. I wasn't too fussed if it didn't work as the lens was my main objective for this raid on evil bay. I loaded a roll of Kodak Gold and went hunting for some late afternoon sunshine.

Sunny afternoons in early November are rather brief affairs here in Wigan. The clocks have gone back an hour to GMT meaning dusk is around 5 pm, thankfully I managed an hour or two getting aquainted with my Zorki along the local farm roads. There are a few trees showing lots of colour and I hoped I would get there before the sun dipped below the trees on the south side of the valley.

The trees are changing by the day with more and more leaf litter building up around the tree trunks at the side of the trails and I managed to find one that was still quite leafy with yellow, orange and golden brown leaves almost ready to fall. I was so engrossed in using my Zorki that I forgot I had my DSLR with me. I had planned on using it more for it's light meter than anything else, but it stayed in my bag as I "Sunny 16'd" the Zorki with wilfull abandon. It didn't take long to shoot my roll of Kodak Gold and, with darkness was approaching fast, I had to head home.

I developed my roll of Kodak Gold in my Unicolor C41 kit. I know it is past its best, but this wasn't a critical test roll. I just wanted to see how the Zorki performed and it did rather well. There's a couple of niggles to iron out, but Soviet rangefinders have lots of quirks and niggles that can be overcome with a little TLC. I edited my images in Affinity Photo to sort out the colour shifting brought on by the old developer and to crop the wonkiness from the frames. Simple minor fixes really.

The item that didn't have a glitch is the Jupiter 8 lens which was the whole reason for buying my Zorki. It performed beautifully. The aperture and focus move nice and smoothly and the lens elements are clean and unblemished. It's maximum aperture of F/2 combined with 9 aperture blades should produce some nice bokeh balls when the christmas lights are switched on in town. 

When I managed to nail the focus it revealed a flaw of my own I need to sort. I kept knocking the diopter adjustment and had to sort it before taking my next shot. A little blob of Blu Tac will sort that until I get used to the ergonomics of the Zorki. It functions like my FED 2, including the important step to wind the film on before setting the shutter speed, nothing that I can't get used to. 

The Jupiter 8 50mm f/2 is a great lens and, whilst it will never be in the same league as the Leica and Voigtlander lenses made for M39 mount, it sits rather nicely in a league of its own. It has bags of character, beautiful colour rendition and really nice bokeh.

Here's a few shots from my roll of Kodak Gold shot with my Zorki and Jupiter 8. It was fun taking them and I have placed them and more in an album on my Flickr account which you can visit using the link below. I hope you enjoy them.

Kodak Gold - Zorki 4 - Jupiter 8 50mm f/2

Frugal Film Project 2021 - October

 I decided to have a change of camera for October and use my FED 2 for this month's Frugal Film Project roll of Kodak ColorPlus 200. After getting some favourable results in B&W with it earlier in the year, I wanted to see how it performs with colour film. I have got used to the lens it came with, an Industar 26m 50mm f/2.8, despite it not being in great shape mechanically. The grease has hardened over time and it is a bit lumpy to say the least, but optically it's decent.

October wasn't the greatest in terms of weather, it stayed pretty warm and rained a lot and this resulted in autumn being a little late this year. The local woodland nature trails are usually well on their way to being full of leaf litter and the trees becoming bare by the end of October, but nope, not this year. It was late in the month before we even got a good change of colour from the dense green foliage the trees displayed throughout the spring and summer. Undeterred I headed out on a dry day in mid October to see what I could find.

I decided to head to town and try to take a photo of Wigan Little Theatre, the home of Amatuer Dramatics in the town since WW2. There aren't many independent theatres left in Britain, but Wigan Little Theatre has managed to confound critics for decades and remain independent thanks to the hard work of everyone involved with it. Although the Pandemic has seen an enforced break for the theatre, they are already planning their return with a traditional Pantomime, Dick Whittington in December. He's behind you! Oh no he isn't! Oh yes he is! With much slapping of thighs, cross dressing and terrible jokes.

There wasn't much else in town that inspired me so I headed home and a few days later went for a walk around the the local farm roads to see if autumn had begun yet. Thankfully some of the trees had begun turning various shade of yellow, orange, gold and brown as they slowly prepared for their winter sleep. With autumn being late this year it seems as though the year has dragged on. However, there's only two more rolls of film to go in this year's Frugal Film Project and it doesn't seem all that long ago when I was shooting my first roll back in January.

Here are a few of my photo's for October and I have placed more in my Frugal Film Project Colour Album on Flickr for you to enjoy them in full resolution. I have also begun DSLR Scanning my film so the quality will improve as i become more accomplished at it. I enjoyed using my FED 2 this month and had to learn to use a light meter again after a couple of years of having reliable in camera light metering. This project has been a great lesson for me and I might just carry it on in 2022.

Frugal Film Project 2021 - Colour Film