Monday, March 12, 2007

THE CHOIR

England’s first truly Gothic buildings belong to the last thirty years of the twelfth century and Canterbury is among one of them. It was on September the 5th 1174 that the whole of the eastern part of the Cathedral of Canterbury was consumed by fire. The rebuilding occupied about ten years. It is characteristic of the English cathedrals to extend a long way east-wards of the central tower: nowhere is this more strikingly in evidence that at Canterbury. Moreover the whole of this part of the cathedral miraculously escaping the German bombing in 1942, remains as an authentic and very little altered building of the last quarter of the twelfth century. In most English cathedrals the choir is separated from the nave by a screen; at Canterbury not only is this the case, but the separation is further marked by a broad flight of steps leading up to the screen, the choir floor (but not its roof) being much higher than that of the nave. (Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedral of England, 1967; http://www.1911encyclopedia.org/Canterbury)

I used a 6x6 Hasselblad 501C and 50mm zeiss plannar lens with yellow filter. The film was Ilford HP5+ 400 rated in 320, developed in Rodinal, and the print was made on Ilford Multigrade IV FB Glossy paper developed in Dektol and Ansco 120.

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