Places-Foreign or Alien

I spent many a stressed-out hour trying to decide what to photograph for the 'Alien or Foreign' part of the places assignment, i found it very difficult to think of a place that inspired me. Eventually, i remembered the 'Singing Ringing Tree', a wind powered sculpture resembling a tree that is found on one of the hills overlooking Burnley. Designed by architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu. It is 3 metres tall and built from galvanised pipes, some architectural or supporting, and some purely to create sound.

I decided, rather than do photograph it from a distance away showing all the country and town below it, to try and photograph it a little more abstractly, so you can't necessarily tell what it is or what its purpose serves. I chose it because it IS alien, a man-made object placed in a very prominent position, the noise it creates (which, sadly, cannot be recreated through photography!) is very eerie, discordant and uncomfortable, and that also inspired my decision to photograph it. Its supposed to be singing and ringing, but i find the noise to be howling and shrieking to be honest!

Contact Sheets



here you can see the shots i took of the singing ringing tree. Some from further away and some a little close, and one through the actual tubes viewing the windmills on the opposite side.


Here are my final two picks alongside the final edits.


i love this, its so abstract, it was taken upwards against the sky to create the feeling that the pipes are advancing over the screen. i love the dark section at the right compared to the bright on the left.




With this one, i took the 'Alien' part of the brief quite literally! I thought the curves of the side of the tree looked like the organic-like curves of a spaceship, and edited in a way to disguise the blue tones of the metal tubes.