A very rewarding photo of the week

Posted on September 28, 2022September 29, 2022 by carlotta

A very rewarding photo of the week

This is the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange on my very first site visit. I had never been inside the building before and was overwhelmed by the sheer size and beauty of this interior space. It was a very hot June day and afternoon sunlight was streaming in through the huge iconic west-facing windows.

It is that figure, dead centre and running in the shaft of light, that always gets me. He looks so tiny, giving perspective to the enormity of the room.

The special reason for sharing this cyanotype today is that it is being offered as a reward for a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for the Brighton Dome and Corn Exchange.

The Brighton Dome need to raise funds urgently as they are still recovering from the impact of covid, plus facing huge increases in energy costs and inflation.They do so much to support the arts and are an invaluable part of their community: “We employ 130 full-time equivalent permanent staff, 200 casual workers, around 100 freelance artists and creative workers and 131 volunteers, and have a duty, as custodians of these spaces, and a commitment to the artists we support.” I am one of those 100 freelance artists.

I have three different cyanotypes of the Corn Exchange refurbishment being offered at a variety of levels, from greeting cards, to reproduction prints, to signed, hand-printed originals.

Please do check out the link and give generously if you are able.

First photos ever taken of the Corn Exchange ceiling

Posted on June 5, 2020June 8, 2020 by carlotta

First photos ever taken of the Corn Exchange ceiling

I am so pleased to be able to share this photograph I took of the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange in January. This is the apex of the magnificent vaulted roof. At a height of 34 ft (10.3m), this unsupported structure covers a space of 178 by 58 ft (54 by 17.6m), the widest span timber frame in the country. Legend has it that there were delays to the construction of the building 200 years ago because of the difficulty of finding large enough single spans of roof timber.

This ceiling has never been photographed up close because it has remained too difficult to get to – until now. The wooden platform shown here is laid across the top of the scaffolding birdcage that fills the open space of the Corn Exchange, giving access to the timbers for the first time in 200 years. This enables them to be examined and repaired – and photographed. Lucky me, I got to be the one for the job.

Many more of my photographs of the Corn Exchange restoration can be found here. You can read more about the progress of the work on the Brighton Dome website here.

Lost in space

Posted on January 4, 2019 by carlotta

Lost in space

Wishing you all a very happy New Year! A new year and a 200-year-old ceiling at the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange, the redevelopment I have been documenting over the past 18 months. This monumental, unsupported vaulted roof stretches across a room that is 178 by 58 feet. In other words, it is just enormous.

Over the months I have watched while workers manually stripped the paint off of each strut (there are hundreds), and slowly renewed the wood. Now shiny new bolts are reinforcing this 32ft high expanse. More photos of this fascinating project can be found here.

Please get in touch if you would like to discuss how we can work together.

Brighton Corn Exchange window

Posted on January 12, 2018June 1, 2018 by photograph

Brighton Corn Exchange window

I wanted to start the year off right with a photograph of the glorious Brighton Corn Exchange. I am documenting the redevelopment of this iconic building, a process that is adding new visitor facilities and restoring long-lost heritage features to this historic performance space. The Corn Exchange has the most beautiful

windows that I come back to over and over again, trying to capture their grace and elegance in photographs. On my most recent visit, this window was misted over, giving solidity and definition to its shape. The sunlight on the buildings across the courtyard reflected a warm glow onto the grid of glass panes.

Vast space of the Brighton Corn Exchange

Posted on September 7, 2017June 1, 2018 by photograph

Vast space of the Brighton Corn Exchange

I have been photographing the Brighton Dome Corn Exchange redevelopment over the past few months. The Corn Exchange is a magnificent former riding house built for King George IV around 1805, when he was still the Prince of Wales. The room is 178 by 58 feet with a 34-foot high unsupported roof. I am listing these statistics because it can be hard to perceive quite how large this space is. To get an idea, if you search this photo carefully you might be able to spot the single tiny workman in the distance.

On my most recent visit I was taken onto the roof by way of the southern end of the building. As I climbed up each level of scaffolding, I attempted to photograph through very dusty old windows. I could see the spectacular view in front of me but I couldn’t get the shot. Finally, at the top of the central arched window I found a single broken pane of glass in the very middle of the building. This allowed me to get a clear shot of the entire room just below ceiling height. You can find more photographs from this project here.

Graves at the Brighton Dome

Posted on July 20, 2017June 1, 2018 by photograph

Graves at the Brighton Dome

I was called in at short notice to photograph a 200-year-old Quaker burial site discovered at the Brighton Dome during the redevelopment of the Corn Exchange. I made two visits to document the team from Archaeology South-East while they exhumed several of the 15 complete skeletons. The remains have now all been carefully lifted out and moved to an office where they will be cleaned and examined in detail. Decisions are still to be made about whether they will be reburied, cremated or stored for further study.

While that process sounds very clinical, the reality was an utmost care, respect and diligence shown by the archaeologists. It was a painstaking process to find and catalogue every bone from each grave. I was curious to know how it felt to hold a human skull and was told that the first time was definitely a strange experience. For the record, this was one of the most exciting shoots I have ever been on. More photographs from this shoot are here. More information about the burial site can be found here.

Tag: Brighton Dome