View From a Bridge: Walney, Barrow & Black Combe photographs

View from A Bridge, by Maf Smith, is a complete record of photographs - one for each day of 2001 - of the view of Walney Channel looking north towards Black Combe.

This site is the on-line exhibition of these photos.

Each photo was taken from the same spot on Victoria Bridge, which spans the Walney Channel by Barrow in Furness in NW England. The times of shots varied, but the basic rule was that each day a photo (one colour, one black and white) would be taken at the time of first crossing, rather than selecting a time or waiting for the right conditions. In this way the results depended on daily routine and the view itself, rather than being planned out or controlled in any way.

The cameras used were both APS automatics, the black and whites on a Canon Ixus, the colour on a bottom-of-the-range Kodak camera. Using these cameras allowed image dating to track the project, but also meant that each photograph is comparable to the rest, as there was no adjustment of settings on the camera. Using automatics 'let the camera decide' how to record each day's shot.

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