University of Suffolk student Deborah Norwood has superbly captured the haunting past of Broomhill Swimming Pool.
“I wanted to capture parts that you can’t see on Google Earth, the bits that when you look at the images, you think ‘I remember that’,” the 28-year-old said.
“I wanted people to remember their childhood.”
The strikingly blue men’s changing room, the sun terrace, and the ladies rinse shower will bring back memories for most.
The derelict lido was awarded a £3.4m Heritage Lottery Fund last month for it to reopen in 2020, some 18 years after the open-air pool closed. The Grade II listed site originally opened in 1938.
“It is such an iconic part of Ipswich,” said Ms Norwood, who is studying photography at the University of Suffolk.
“I’m surprised it is not photographed more. It’s like parts of it have stopped in time.”
Her Broomhill gallery is part of a final-year project for her photography degree.
She said: “I was originally planning on creating a series that was based around fairy-tales that was going to be set in ruins. I had hoped to use Broomhill pool as a location and bring a model in, but when I first stepped foot in there, I saw the beauty of it and knew I instantly wanted to change my project to include Broomhill as a main feature.
“The architect Alan Wilkinson gave myself and my fiancé a tour and I took photographs and learnt the history of it.
“I had never been there before but my fiancé and his family, who have lived in Ipswich all their lives, had fond memories of it.”
Ms Norwood, originally from Fakenham in Norfolk, developed a love of photography after being diagnosed with ME, leaving her bedbound for five years.
She said: “My grandad bought me a digital camera for my 21st birthday and he and my nan used to take me out when I was poorly.
“It was something I could do that didn’t make me feel even worse. I fell in love with photography and enrolled on a city and guilds digital photography course at Wells-Next-the-Sea library one day a week.”
Her work will form part of an exhibition of photographs by university students at the Waterfront Gallery in Ipswich. The students are raising money to exhibit their work at Candid Arts in London on June 14.
For more, see @uosdegreeshow on Twitter or Deborah’s Facebook page.
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