ABANDONED SPACE





The term 'Abandoned Space' can refer to a place that is unkempt, dull and lifeless. On the other hand, it can refer to a place that has been forgotten or rarely visited. Recently, I visited The Pergola, Golders Hill for some inspiration and I was left amazed by the scenery. When I arrived, I was not aware that it closes at 3PM so I only got the chance to take several pictures before being asked to leave. This is the collection of photos that I took on location.

(click on the pictures for higher resolution)


They all show an element of symmetry and beauty. My initial thought was that it would not count as an 'abandoned space'... but then I thought about it. The beauty and well kept scenery could all be a façade of the fact that the Pergola can average at less than 100 visitors a week. The perfectly trimmed hedges, symmetrical architecture and still waters show the Pergola to be a flat, eerie place with little life and odd sense of loneliness. So in this sense, I believe that it counts as an Abandoned Space because the perfect keeping of the scenery really exerts an odd sense of  being left behind by society and being alone in a wide space.
I took the photos on to Photoshop and done some experimenting with the level rates and changing the curves to make the photo higher in contrast to create the sense of eeriness in the scenes. I chose the three photos that I found to be the best: 

 - This photo has a real sense of depth and the perspective shown in the photo is centered. The gloomy natural daylight really works well with the grey paved tiles and I could do a lot of distortion with this photo because of the flat surface.

  1. Duplicated the Layer
  2. Flipped the layer horizontally
  3. Use 'Blending Options' to make the flipped layer overlay the original by excluding the diffrent colours
  4. Used the Marquee tool to select the top third of the photo to desaturate it
  5. Used the 'Brightness & Contrast' levels to make the desaturated section intense.
The colours are all dull and it creates a vivid feeling of exclusion. The strong differences between the colour and the desaturated area are connotations to the idea of the well kept area being an abandoned one; they don't correlate.


With this photo, I used the Distort > Whirl tool to create a sense of unlevel, uneven , uncomfortable, surreal surrounding. It is represented through the curved pond with the still water and the curvy stairs.