With the advent of the Internet as a vast source of information, libraries (particularly specialist ones), take on a cultural significance, authority, and physicality that the ethereal nature of the Internet cannot provide. My images focus on the methodology of display in these libraries, their differences in design and architecture essentially homogenised by their ergonomic need for the books to remain accessible.
In “The Library” series, I visited various private, specialist and university libraries from around the UK. These collections often form part of larger institutions, places that are generally only accessible to members. As they are mainly specialist in nature, these libraries only contain books that will have relevance to their members. Therefore, these areas are much more intimate and luxurious than public libraries, catering to the tastes of their members, who often fund them with their memberships. Many of these libraries are designed with an upper tier that contains the older books of the collections, but these spaces are regularly restricted. But while these spaces are not often used by members of the library, they are still an important part of the aesthetic of the library and an essential part of its collection and heritage.
By photographing these spaces, they are rendered obsolete; the vast shelves of books become superficial representations, rather than collections of knowledge. Likewise, in the lecture theatre image, the blank screen hints at the possibility of a room filled with students learning from a lecturer. The photographs suggest the prospect of human interaction.
Royal College of Physicians - Lecture Theatre
Royal College of Physicians - New Library
Oxford University - Duke Humfrey's Library
Literary And Philosophical Society