elemental images

digitally transformed photography

lens based digital art

elemental images

original lens-based digital art for corporate and domestic interiors and exteriors by Ali White

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Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield June 2008

The work created for the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield illustrates the extraordinary potentials within the medium of digital photographic art to represent any space or building.


3 metres wide on stretched artist canvas
Contemporary digital imaging technology makes it possible, for example, to represent a space or a building from many different viewpoints simultaneously, creating a unitary seamless whole that is entirely ‘realistic’ but also impossible (i.e. the building cannot be seen this way from any single vantage point). The exterior of Lawrence Batley – constructed out of more than 50 photographs taken from different vantage points - is one example of this.



It is also possible to incorporate elements that do not physically belong to the space but are, for example, functionally related to what occurs within that space. The representation of the interior of the theatre, for example, not only combines the perspective of the stage from the auditorium with that of the auditorium from the stage in the same image, it also includes parts of the lighting rigs, cooling system, boiler room, lifts and other ‘backstage’ elements that are not visible to the audience but clearly understood to be necessary to the production of theatre Again this can be done in such a way as to cast the space in a certain light that provides a talking point for viewers – in this case the perception of theatre as a form of magic. (Other extraneous elements such as signs, logos, drawings, plans and text can be incorporated in a similar fashion – though not appropriate in this case. It is also possible in some instances to incorporate photographic elements that belong to different historical periods, perhaps a ‘before and after’.)


4 metres wide on stretched artist canvas
The brief for the Lawrence Batley project also included the contemporary setting of the theatre. The building itself was originally a Methodist Chapel in the centre of town. When erected in 1819 it was the largest Wesleyan mission in the world. Almost 200 years on the surrounding buildings have obviously changed dramatically in form and function, and one way to show this was via a 240 degree rooftop panorama. It is not the most attractive sight, but the sprawling rooftops of the recently built shopping mall that dominate the space between the parish church at one end, and the old hill fort ‘Castle Hill’ at the other, tell their own story.