The Meridian Line.

The Meridian Line - 2001

Much has been said about my new digital camera and the digital imaging that I have been doing this last few months. What I have not yet talked about on this Blog is photography and the two year course I did at Coleg Gwent and obtaining my ONC in Photography. I loved this time, when I felt the world was my oyster.

On being given the subject for my first year exam I felt quite exited. The tutor told us all to go out and photograph TIME. What a challenge! We had three weeks to do this before presenting it to the tutor who would give an opinion on it before submitting it some weeks later to the examining board. One thing was made quite clear to us is that photographs of clocks would not be acceptable. I instantly knew what I wanted to do. Go to time itself and photograph the Meridian Line (see black and white photograph at the top of the page). As this was a black & white photography course in year one, I not only had to take the photographs but develop and enlarge them too.

Upon my arrival in London, I took the Docklands Light Railway to Greenwich which was teeming with tourists, giving it the lovely feeling that only Greenwich has (one of my favorite parts of London) However this was not helping my cause as I wanted to photograph the Meridian Line tourist free if possible!

Anyone reading this will remember from school that due to this early dedication to the pursuit of knowledge in astronomy, Greenwich became known internationally as the centre for the observation of time (GMT) and space. The Meridian Line, sometimes known as the Zero line of Longitude, runs from the North Pole to the South Pole directly through the observatory in Greenwich. Visitors flock to be photographed straddling the brass line inset in the cobbles to be photographed with feet firmly set in different time zones, thus being on two sides of the world at once. This was my problem that morning, something I hadn't foreseen! I didn't want the tourists in my exam photo!

I hung about all the morning until gradually the good tourist folk made their way down the hill in to Greenwich for lunch. There were still some about, but eventually when some people saw I was seriously trying to capture this image they stood back while I took the shoots I wanted.

Back to class. I couldn't wait, the developing and enlargement bit had gone pretty well. (I had my own Dark Room at home). I presented them to the Tutor and she said, in front of the whole class 'This is not what I want!'. I cannot describe how I felt at that time, but she went on to say she wanted the passage of time, not time itself. There were a few arguments breaking out about the Tutors instruction, but I distanced myself from that and went home to re-think this through.

Some of the photographs that had been accepted by the tutor were of flowers dying over a period of weeks and candles burning down, all depicting the passage of time. I choose to place a small table and chair under a loggia type thing in my garden and photographed the shadows throughout the day. It got me the mark I needed to pass the exam. I thought I had learned from that experience not to 'think outside the box' but sadly for me I still do, always looking for that unusual angle. Some of us never learn!