In 2023 the Cornish Buildings Group were pleased to work with Thomas Herrmann Photography https://www.thomas-herrmann.com/ Thomas is based in Stuttgart, Germany, and is a freelance architectural and interior photographer. He has worked for various architectural firms, design and advertising agencies and publishing companies.
Thomas contacted us and together we worked up a list of buildings at risk in Cornwall that would fulfil his needs to attract project funding.
As Thomas explains…
I always wanted to visit Cornwall and had long wanted to apply for scholarship funding provided by STIFTUNG KULTURWERK. They give grants twice a year, although, with a couple of hundreds of applicants each time, competition was stiff. I was just looking for the right project. It was a lot of work to receive the funding however it seems they trusted me to come up with something original.
I began research and reading your online ‘Buildings at Risk’ blog posts. I had been reading a lot about the lack of funding or care or use for these various very interesting buildings, and watched the several You Tube videos when somebody posted about them. I was intrigued by the political element of heritage protection and learnt more about organisations such as Surfers against Sewage and First not Second Homes. These groups saw little potential in my helping their cause however the Cornish Buildings Group were keen to help and support me. I was delighted by this prospect as photographing architecture is my main interest.
With the Group’s help I created a list of about thirty buildings I planned to visit. Not surprisingly I found others along the way. People in towns like Camborne and Bodmin didn’t seem to know what I was looking for or found the aims of my project quite odd, Regardless, the whole project became a great experience with lots of lovely people and a lot of astonishing moments along the way. So far the response has been very positive – we will see what comes off it.
Here are a selection of images that I took – thank you, great people of Cornwall!
Thomas Herrmann
Paul Holden, former Project Lead for the Buildings at Risk Project , says ‘Below are a selection of images taken during the visit of Thomas and Tania to Cornwall. I have not labelled them as I feel the impact of the images speaks for themselves. Thank you Thomas and Tanja for meeting up whilst in Cornwall and for your efforts in fulfilling your scholarship’.
Cornish Buildings Group 'Buildings at Risk' Project 