Thursday, 6 December 2012

Viaduct, Exercise & Piers

The Signal :- This is a shot of a railway signal sitting on top of the London Road railway viaduct in the city of Brighton, England. It was built in the 1840s by the locomotive engineer and railway architect John Urpeth Rastrick. The viaduct is a sharply curving structure that has 27 arches and an estimated 10 million bricks. It is still in constant use to this day and is listed as a Grade II structure because of its historical and architectural significance. An etching of how it originally looked can be found here : Viaduct Etching

"Half Light Flight" :- This shot was taken halfway down (or up) the huge chalk cliff cut steps at Peacehaven on the south coast of England. The sun was casting a strong shadow over half the steps as the cliff face behind me was obscuring the light. There's quite a spectacular view form these steps and once you are at the bottom there's the daunting task of having to climb all the way back up them again later ... there's well over 100 of them! It always fascinates me at mankind's want and need to reach things that are out of reach. In this case it's the beach but throughout history we've striven to go faster, deeper or higher, we even made it off our planet altogether. Why can't we just be happy with what we have instead of wanting to be down, up, along, through or faster? It's almost like the unobtainable is taunting us and forever saying "Come on then...have a go!".

"Overcast" :- Ah Brighton Pier makes an appearance once again in my images. I used to shun the tourist things in Brighton, the two piers, Royal Pavilion, Victorian seafront etc. It was a case of seen it before, done it, leave it to the day trippers etc. But I am truly thankful for the "second sight" that my camera has given me. It's made me open my eyes up more to the city that I grew up in and to see the tourist hot spots for what they really are...and they are quite splendid. We all get blasé about our surroundings and forget exactly who we are and where we live. It's all taken for granted. I am rediscovering my home town and city once again as well as the rich historical county of Sussex.

All Photography © Justin Hill