Sneinton Market (Cyanotype Series)

Sneinton Market is a conservation area in Nottingham bordering Hockley, Sneinton and St Anns. A market has been held here since 1860, and it has long been an important public space for local communities. Avenues of 1930s market buildings are aligned on a grid pattern and make the area very distinctive, but have become quite run down over time; one section has been demolished and another has been damaged by fire. As a result much of the market has fallen out of use and the area is often merely a place people walk through on their way in and out of the city centre. In recent years there have been efforts by local people as well as Nottingham City Council to inject a bit more life into Sneinton Market. Weekly markets are now run by a local community group, who bring a diverse range of stalls to the area as well as occasional larger public events. The city council redeveloped the market square in 2011 and have further plans to renovate the market buildings with the aim of encouraging creative businesses into the area. The Cyanotype process is considered to be one of the earliest photographic methods, discovered in 1842 by Sir John Herschel who used the technique to reproduce notes and diagrams. Anna Atkins, regarded by many as the first female photographer, put the cyanotype to photographic use in the same year. The process uses a solution of iron salts sensitive to ultraviolet light, and which when brushed onto paper, exposed to sunlight and washed in water results in the Cyanotype’s immediately recognisable Prussian blue colouring. These cyanotypes show views of Sneinton Market between 2008 and 2012. The source images are screen grabs taken from Google Street View in February 2014.