Driven by her passion for architecture, history and urban transformation, Ildikó Péter traveled to seven cities and four different regions through Northern England in June 2012. Her aim was to follow the tracks of the Industrial Revolution in Northern England and to document its social and economic impact by capturing the changes to the urban landscape. Péter photographed construction sites, abandoned buildings, and redevelopment works that show a wide scale of architectural styles from the Victorian heritage of factories, docks, and warehouses from the 1800’s, through post-war modernist buildings of the 1950s and 1960s, to the contemporary architecture of city regeneration programmes. The images were taken with a large format camera on color negative film and presented in a chronological order exploring her route through Blackpool, Morecambe, Fleetwood, Liverpool, Manchester, Bradford, and Leeds. Although these are traditionally inhabited cities, they appear deserted on the photos: we see the built-up environment without a significant amount of human interaction. Péter shows how nature and industrial production were connected and how these industrial sites became integral parts of urban development. The project was realized within the framework of the Goldfinger Travel Scholarship Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects and resulted in the publication of both a photo and a sketchbook. Ildikó Péter graduated at MOME in 2007. Her works have been exhibited in Oslo, Prague, Milan, and Paris during the past decade.
#008, from the series Northern England, the Industrial Revolution Route, 2012
#042, from the series Northern England, the Industrial Revolution Route, 2012
#045, from the series Northern England, the Industrial Revolution Route, 2012
#046, from the series Northern England, the Industrial Revolution Route, 2012