Spiderman's Web
Updated: Sep 10
A City of Contrasts Through the Lens
There is something exciting about taking a camera into a city with no real plan other than to explore, look around and see what catches your eye. For our latest photography field trip, we headed from East Kilbride into the heart of Glasgow, travelling by train from both East Kilbride and Hairmyres before meeting up at Glasgow Central. From there, the day became a photographic exploration of the streets, buildings and changing character of the city.
Starting at Glasgow Central
Our Field Trip began at Glasgow Central, which was also where we would eventually finish the afternoon.
Central Station is one of those locations that photographers can return to again and again. There are endless opportunities to photograph architecture, people, light, shadows, patterns and details. But before we turned our cameras towards the station itself, we headed outside to explore the streets surrounding it.
The first part of the walk took us along the streets around the Baltic Chambers, where Glasgow's changing skyline was immediately apparent.
Old Glasgow Meets the New
One of the most interesting aspects of the trip was seeing the contrast between the older buildings and the brand-new developments rising around them.
Glasgow is a city where different generations of architecture sit almost side by side. Traditional stone buildings, familiar Glasgow streets and older commercial buildings now share the skyline with huge modern structures clad in glass. These new buildings provide some fantastic photographic opportunities. Looking upwards, the glass facades create reflections of the surrounding city and sky, while the sheer height of the buildings gives a completely different perspective to the traditional street-level photography we often concentrate on.
For the photographers on the trip, it was a chance to experiment with composition, perspective, leading lines and reflections.
Sometimes the best photograph isn't what's directly in front of you. It is looking upwards and seeing the architecture from a completely different angle.
Exploring Behind JP Morgan
From the newer developments, we moved through towards the older architecture around the back of the JP Morgan Stanley. This gave us another opportunity to look at the relationship between old and new. Rather than simply photographing individual buildings, we were looking at how they interacted with each other — the shapes, lines, textures and different materials creating compositions within the streetscape. This is one of the things I really enjoy about taking photography students into a city environment. You don't need to travel miles to find interesting subjects.
Glasgow provides an incredible photographic playground right on the doorstep.
Across the Footbridge into Glasgow's New Financial District
We then crossed the footbridge towards Glasgow's newer financial district, where the Barclays buildings dominate the area. The modern architecture here provided a completely different photographic experience. Glass, steel, concrete and geometric shapes replaced much of the traditional sandstone architecture. The buildings created opportunities for strong lines and minimalist compositions, while reflections in the glass offered another way of incorporating the surrounding city into our photographs.
It was also a good reminder that photography isn't necessarily about finding a beautiful subject.
Sometimes shape, pattern, texture, repetition and perspective can be enough to create a strong photograph.
A building that might seem ordinary when walking past it can become something completely different when viewed through a camera.
Back Towards Central Station
After exploring the financial district, we made our way back across King George 5th Bridge and towards Glasgow Central. By this point, we'd photographed modern architecture, older buildings, streets, bridges and a variety of urban details.
But there was one location still waiting for us.
Glasgow Central Station.
Finishing the Day Inside Central
We finished the afternoon back inside the station, taking advantage of one of Glasgow's most recognisable architectural spaces.
Inside Central, there is so much to photograph. The structure of the roof, the platforms, arches, windows, signs, columns and constant movement of people all provide opportunities for different photographic approaches.
It was a great way to finish the field trip because it brought together many of the themes we'd explored throughout the day — architecture, perspective, composition, light, symmetry and capturing a sense of place.
And, of course, being a railway station, there was plenty of opportunity to experiment with photographing movement and everyday life.
Looking at Glasgow Differently
One of the main reasons I enjoy running photography field trips is that they encourage us to look at familiar places differently.
A city isn't just a collection of buildings.
It is made up of lines, shapes, reflections, textures, people, light and shadows — all constantly changing depending on where you stand and when you press the shutter.
Our journey from East Kilbride and Hairmyres to Glasgow Central gave us the opportunity to explore all of those things within a relatively small area of the city.
From the soaring glass buildings around the Baltic Chambers and the modern financial district, to the older architecture and the impressive interior of Central Station, Glasgow gave us a fantastic variety of subjects to work with.
Most importantly, it gave everyone plenty of opportunities to experiment.
And that's what these field trips are really about — getting out with the camera, trying something different and discovering photographs in places you might normally walk straight past.
Until the next field trip...
A big thank you to everyone who came along and got involved.
Now comes the really interesting part — going through the photographs, selecting our favourites, editing them and seeing how differently each photographer interpreted the same streets and buildings.
Because ultimately, the camera doesn't take the photograph — the photographer does.
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