Watford Palace Theatre
Capturing the Spirit of a Building
Between January and April 2024 I spent a big part of my time at the Watford Palace Theatre. Using a Harman Obscura pinhole camera, I captured the heart of the building, the Music Hall built in 1908, using shutter speeds of between four and 18 hours when shooting indoors.
With shutter speeds like these, strange things can happen, capturing what the eye cannot see. If you look up the history of the Watford Palace Theatre you’ll find what I’m referring to (and what the staff members picked up on as soon as they saw the first results).
The selected works are on display at the theatre bar. I'd like to thank Steve Marmion, director of the theatre, for this commission, Sam Ford for all the help organising my shoot days, Sharon and Dan for closing the shutter in the morning after overnight exposures, Dot Imaging for their immaculate processing of the film, Seb Edge for the fibre prints, Raphael Schneebeli at Lock & Davies for the framing and Denise and Michael at Lucid Imaging for printing and installing the vinyl.