I first went to the Foxfield Railway in December 2011 for a photo charter involving a crane tank engine at the Foxfield Colliery. The colliery was a rare survivor – it had shut in the 1960’s but for reason that are unclear the site wasn’t levelled and the headgears (and some of the surface) buildings were left standing. Some restoration had gone on in 2007 and when I visited in 2011 the larger downcast headgear looked like new.

For my typology I’m unsure of which of the following images works best. It’s impossible to get a side on photograph of either without the other being in the shot, such is there positioning. So from a composition perspective my choices were more about what to exclude e.g. do I include the railway wagon in or not? In doing so, the upcast feels less abbreviated, less cut off, but for some reason it feels like it dominates the scene. The other one to my eyes is more balanced in terms of visual weight but feels somehow truncated.