Scenes from a Mary Celeste (...in W1A)
At times during coronavirus pandemic I was engaged by the BBC on various projects, many of them deemed ‘broadcast critical’. It required me being based at New Broadcasting House in Central London while the rest of Britain (and the world) was ordered to work from home.
In 2013 when it opened, the Guardian reported the building’s interior designers wanted the Corporation's enormous open plan offices to reflect society and be 'a celebration of people working closely together'. Not great in an unprecedented health crisis.
As the pandemic wore on I started to see how the building began to echo and reflect the the audiences to which it was broadcasting. Deserted desks and corridors like empty town centres, confusing and strange rules that seemed bound to no time and large parts of the building - like so many millions of lives - literally turned upside down.
The project is so-called because of the number of times I heard people comment that life in Broadcasting House, a building many call the Mothership, was 'like working on the bloody Mary Celeste'.
Thanks and credits
All photographs taken July 2020 to March 2021 at BBC New Broadcasting House. 120 film. Thanks Jane, Genie, Will, Isabella and Marianna as well as Terry at Bayeux.