Photo Essay
I focused my photo essay on the architecture of Charleston South Carolina and the surrounding areas. I chose to focus on this place because I was going to Charleston over April vacation and knew that the architecture was beautiful, with many Antebellum and even earlier homes surviving. This assignment was important to me because I was interested in the unique architectural styles of the city. Through these images I am trying to show that cities from different regions have different styles and aspects to their architecture to accommodate for things like weather, climate, and culture. These pictures show clear examples of those architectural components which were shaped by regional factors. Charleston before and after the Civil War was a place of business and culture for the many affluent men and women in the area. To capture the style of Charleston I focused on some key architectural features that are unique to the city. On of these is the Charleston single. It is a one room wide house with a porch on one side running the whole length of the house. This porch, or piazza as they are called in Charleston, allows the cool afternoon breeze and shade to be enjoyed after a long hot humid day. Another aspect is the opening arms staircase, an aspect of Charleston architecture which displays Southern hospitality. the stairs into the house looks like open arms welcoming you into the house. I used this feature in this essay by splitting the picture into 2 photos and placing the first half at the beginning of the essay and the second at the end of the essay. To create the images into one flowing essay I left all the pictures in color the way they were taken, and only color corrected them.