Welcome
I've re-discovered photography, and black and white photography in particular, as a real passion to explore images of what I see around me, especially architecture and landscape (the interest in architecture comes from the rest of my family -- my father, brother and son are all architects). In architecture I’m fascinated by the drama in the interplay of form and function -- in my photographs I’m attempting to capture this through elements of the physical structure in the context of the function of that space.
This site is focused on one of the finest achievements of English architecture -- the great medieval cathedrals. Because of their chequered history of building and rebuilding, from foundation in the 11th century through to the Reformation, they exhibit a wide variety of architecural styles, evolution and implementation, from early Norman through to Late Gothic – both within one building as well as between them – providing great scope for innovation and excitement in the creation of space and vision. The architecture of the medieval years covered in this site runs from the Norman conquest, and the great rush of major church building that the Normans initiated, through the various stages of gothic expansion and rebuilding that went on up until the Reformation and Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.
I’m engrossed by the imagination and skills of those who conceived and built them, the awe-inspiring scale and the interactions between form and function at a human level, as well as a sense of the faith and divine purpose for which they were created. It’s these elements that I’m attempting to capture in my photographs -- structures that signal strength and purpose, beauty and majesty, elegance and grace, exuberance and awe, intimacy and reflection – demonstrating such a magnificent variety of form for common functions.
In my work I have been especially inspired by the masterpieces of Frederick Evans, Edwin Smith and Martin Hurlimann.
This site shows examples from the cathedrals at Bath, Canterbury, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Oxford, Norwich, Peterborough, Rochester, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester, and York.
Please visit my other site at JohnEatonPhotography to see more examples of my work.
Thank you for visiting my site.
John Eaton
This site is focused on one of the finest achievements of English architecture -- the great medieval cathedrals. Because of their chequered history of building and rebuilding, from foundation in the 11th century through to the Reformation, they exhibit a wide variety of architecural styles, evolution and implementation, from early Norman through to Late Gothic – both within one building as well as between them – providing great scope for innovation and excitement in the creation of space and vision. The architecture of the medieval years covered in this site runs from the Norman conquest, and the great rush of major church building that the Normans initiated, through the various stages of gothic expansion and rebuilding that went on up until the Reformation and Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII.
I’m engrossed by the imagination and skills of those who conceived and built them, the awe-inspiring scale and the interactions between form and function at a human level, as well as a sense of the faith and divine purpose for which they were created. It’s these elements that I’m attempting to capture in my photographs -- structures that signal strength and purpose, beauty and majesty, elegance and grace, exuberance and awe, intimacy and reflection – demonstrating such a magnificent variety of form for common functions.
In my work I have been especially inspired by the masterpieces of Frederick Evans, Edwin Smith and Martin Hurlimann.
This site shows examples from the cathedrals at Bath, Canterbury, Chichester, Ely, Exeter, Gloucester, Oxford, Norwich, Peterborough, Rochester, Salisbury, Wells, Winchester, and York.
Please visit my other site at JohnEatonPhotography to see more examples of my work.
Thank you for visiting my site.
John Eaton