December '09
"SNOW HILL STATION (GWR): 1972-1978 A CHANGING SPACE"by Dave Allen,
522 ratings
Book of the Year 2009
Well that was exciting! I think being a contender for Bobbooks' yearly competition resulted in far more people actually seeing my book than would have otherwise. The competition all seemed to start slowly, then accelerated to a frenetic pace as the deadline loomed.
My book was an unusual one in that I took the pictures in it many years ago: I was 14 when I first started the sequence of photos and 22 when I finished. I'm a lot older now! They were taken on negative film and colour transparencies. This meant that I had to scan a lot of photos - 900 in fact - and then select the best for the book. If I though that that was a long job, I had no idea how long it would take to repair the pictures in Photoshop. They were scratched to bits and had dust stuck all over them. The worst took about 6 hours to clean-up.
However, it was a labour of love. Snow Hill Station means a lot to the people of Birmingham who remember it before its sad demise. And not just train-spotters! Having spent a lot of time in my teenage years photographing it, I'd fallen in love with the broken majesty of the place. So I guess my book tells a pretty sad story.
To be honest I didn't think I'd win it. Photos of a railway station aren't everybody's cup of tea, never mind a derelict one being demolished. Added to that there were some superb books in contention, either full of great photos of travel or, my favourite, the book '101' which I thought was a superb example of what can be done with layout and type.
My prize camera arrived pretty much immediately after the competition closed and it's a beauty! Its retro styling and chunky feel are very much to my liking, plus it kind of fills a 'hole' in my equipment list. I usually use a full-frame DSLR - really good and really big and pretty heavy too. As you can imagine, I don't take it to the beach... In fact I don't take it anywhere unless it's a serious shoot. Well, I'll be taking my Pen-E-P1 to lots of places. I don't think I'll have to compromise too much on quality either, as it's records 12 megapixels and has RAW format available, which is my favourite format for shooting with.
I'm just starting a new project which will conclude with an exhibition and, of course, a book. No doubt some of the photos will be taken with my new camera as it involves lots of walking around the Eastside area of Birmingham.
Big thanks to Kylie at Bobbooks, who has been patient and helpful, especially when my book was a bit tricky to print.
Dave Allen
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