Middlesbrough's Myplace centre provides leisure, social, advice and learning facilities for young people. The historic Custom House stands in the shadow of the Transporter Bridge over the Tees and has stood empty since the 1980s, but a £4m transformation by Middlesbrough Council has resulted in a world class youth facility and created a gift of a location for a photographer.
Middlesbrough Council asked me to photograph advertising documentary photographs of the centre, on North Street in Middlehaven, to build up a library of ‘feel good’ shots showcasing the refurbishment and the wide range of facilities, which young people helped to plan and design.
Myplace houses a film and recording studio, theatre space, an internet cafe, alcohol-free nightclub, virtual gym and gaming area, sensory room and sports facilities, and I met the Council’s designer, Matt, for a look round and a chat about how the pictures would be used. I’m often wearing my design as well as my photography head so I give the client and the designer what they want. Matt will be using these photographs in brochures, newsletters and other printed materials, plus online, so I wanted to give him a lot of flexibility in the pictures. For instance as well as clear close ups, adding in some soft, out of focus pictures allow the designers to drop text over the top; while a wide landscape image means it can be easily stretched across a double page spread.
Touring the Grade II listed building I could see it had been sympathetically restored, mixing old and new and using vibrant colours to reflect its new purpose. Great swathes of fresh limes, purples and oranges on the walls made fantastic backgrounds against which to photograph young people taking advantage of all the centre has to offer.
Working my way round the building I took in the recording studio where good music was being made, and caught some groups of young people relaxing and playing pool in the cafe, unobtrusively observing them until they forgot about the camera and gave me some great natural shots.
Another group was having some fun dancing and singing in the studios, adding some movement shots to the photo library, while the carefully designed sensory room with its flood of changing colours was an ideal location for shots of people enjoying the feel of textured surfaces and translucent panels. Outside the building the clean, cool lines of table tennis tables and the hard landscaping of the amphitheatre lent some grit to the pictures and contrasted with the softer, people pictures I’d taken inside.
A big crowd turned out to see Mayor Ray Mallon carry out the official launch of the event, helped by Middlesbrough girl Jessica Robinson, a finalist in the BBC's Over The Rainbow TV show. Constant imagination and creativity is required to take everyday situations and make them look different, so rather than a straightforward picture of the unveiling of the plaque, I opted for asking a group of young people to stand up close, while I used years of experience as a North East press and commercial photographer to gauge how high to hold the camera - without the help of my handy viewfinder – to capture their reflections.
After the formalities I spent some time moving around the building, photographing guests taking part or watching dance and theatre workshops, live music, hip hop and break dancing, archery, judo, table tennis and pool games.
I couldn’t miss out a photo of the iconic ‘For young people, by young people’ motto that greets visitors, and which sums up the freedom and spirit of this innovative centre and its people.
The future looks bright for Middlesbrough’s Myplace, and with similar centres in the pipeline for Stockton, Redcar and Cleveland, and Hartlepool, I hope this is just the first of many visits to record its success in photographs.
