DECAY (Yr 10 Ext)

Knowledge Orginiser:

What is DECAY?

This project is about capturing textures, surfaces, and decay in everyday surroundings. It's about finding beauty in the broken and aged. We’re focusing on how time changes materials and objects — rust, peeling paint, torn paper, cracked glass, etc.

THINGS TO think about:

When you're out taking photos, pay attention to the small details. Try getting very close to your subject to highlight the textures, cracks, and edges that tell a story of decay. Think about how natural light falls across the surface — it can bring out depth and detail in the texture. Explore a variety of surfaces like rusted metal, peeling paint, rotting wood, torn posters, or moss-covered stone. The way you frame and angle your shot can completely change the way a texture looks, so take multiple shots from different perspectives.

the key elements of a good abstract photo?

In this project, you should focus on texture, composition, and editing tools to bring your theme to life. Texture is the most important element — try to make the viewer feel the roughness, softness, or decay in the surface just by looking at your image. To do this, you’ll need to think carefully about composition. Consider how to fill the frame, crop your image, or use angles to make the texture the main focus. Finally, use editing tools to enhance what you’ve captured. Try adjusting contrast, sharpness, and shadows to bring out even more detail in your chosen surfaces. These three skills — noticing, framing, and enhancing — will help you make powerful and engaging photographs of erosion and decay.

Tips to Succeed

Success in this project will come from careful observation and experimentation. Take a large number of photographs so you have lots of options to choose from — include a mix of wide shots and extreme close-ups. When selecting images, choose those with strong contrast and visual interest. During the editing stage, focus on enhancing the texture — try adjusting the contrast or converting to black and white to make the surface details stand out. Think about how you can make the texture itself the subject, and let the viewer get lost in the details.

possible ARTIST FOCUS 1 - edward weston

Edward Weston was an American photographer best known for his black-and-white close-up photographs of natural and organic objects such as peppers, shells, and driftwood. His images often focus intensely on texture, shape, and tone, turning ordinary subjects into something almost sculptural and abstract. Weston worked mostly in black and white, using light and shadow to emphasise the curves and lines of his subjects. His approach was clean and minimal, often isolating the object to allow its surface details to take centre stage.

If you choose to respond to Edward Weston, you might focus on photographing simple, everyday objects close-up to reveal their surface textures and natural patterns. Think about using black and white, and concentrate on strong composition and lighting to show texture clearly.

possible ARTIST FOCUS 2 - Aaron Siskind

Aaron Siskind was an American photographer whose work explored the beauty of decay and abstraction in everyday environments. He is best known for his black-and-white photographs of peeling paint, cracked walls, weathered signs, and corroded surfaces. Siskind focused on small sections of buildings or objects, capturing their details in a way that often made them appear like abstract paintings. By getting in close and framing his images carefully, he turned worn-out, broken places into powerful visual compositions.

Siskind’s work shows how time and weather leave marks on the world, and how those marks — though accidental — can be deeply expressive. His images don’t show people, but they suggest human presence through the traces left behind. If you choose to respond to Siskind in your own photography, you should look closely at surfaces in your environment — rust, concrete, plaster, posters, and brickwork — and use black and white editing to emphasise contrast, shape, and texture.