Kathryn Andrews Personal Photography Project: Ghetto Unfabulous Week 2

Apologies for the delay in posting week 2 of my Ghetto Unfabulous Project. I took this photo last weekend but have only just got round to blogging it. Here’s a little background info:

Every town seems to have an affluent, upmarket area as well as a poorer, deprived area. Last weekend I drove around Winchester – particularly the less well off areas looking for something Ghetto Unfabulous to photograph. I came across homes which had a lot of children’s toys strewn all over the front gardens and homes with old battered cars on the front lawn which had clearly been there for some time. The trouble is, I’m not doing this project to mock the way people live or to criticise people going about their every day lives. I’m more interested in the way society as a whole have left some areas to become less desirable. The way society leaves perfectly good buildings and communal areas to become an eyesore. I could have photographed the homes I just mentioned but it just didn’t feel right.

Then I remembered something that did interest me. There are some very affluent homes in Winchester, grand homes with character and style. Most of them are kept up together and are probably listed buildings. However, there is one that has been left to rot. How this poor old house came to be this way I don’t know but something tells me it’s due to be demolished and will probably have a load of flats built in its place. This is happening everywhere at the moment. Developers are getting their hands on old homes, people’s gardens or any other plot of land they can find and they’re building no end of flats. Unfortunately it’s a sad sign of the times. Many people can’t afford to buy a whole house these days, and worse than that, they can’t afford to buy a flat which is why there are so many of these part buy part rent schemes available at the moment.

Gone are the days when an annual salary of £30,000 was considered good pay. To some it still is but really, you couldn’t buy a house with that. To buy an averaged sized 3 bedroom family home in the south of England, the household income would need to be around £50,000 – £60,000 per year and you would also need around a £60,000 deposit. That puts pay to mum staying at home to raise the children. Unless you’re married to a high flying lawyer or a surgeon of course. While some people easily earn this sort of money and more, the fact is, many don’t. We find ourselves in a time when many people between the age of 20 and 40 just cannot afford to buy a house and multi storey flats are going up all around us. I fear that’s what lies in store for this old house. A house which must surely be filled with memories. A house which was once someone’s family home. I just find it unbelievable that a house this old, a house this grand with so much character can be left to rot but I guess a multi story block of flats will line the developers pockets better than a single poor old house. So in the end, I chose this image for week 2 because the story behind it resonates more with me than a few toys or an old car sat on someone’s front lawn.

The above photo was taken using a Nikon D700 camera with a 35mm 1.4 lens. I converted the image to black and white in Lightroom, increased the clarity by 30% and added 50% grain.

Thank you to everyone who commented on week one’s post. I’ve only just seen those comments and it was a lovely surprise so thank you

You can see the images from Ghetto Unfabulous Week 1 here. I’m off out shortly to photograph my first engagement shoot of the year which I’m really looking forward to, and on the way back I’ll be on the look out for more Ghetto Unfabulous photo opportunities for week 3.

If you’re looking for a wedding photographer in Hampshire, including Southampton and Winchester, please visit my main website www.kathrynandrewsphotography.com and I hope to hear from you soon.