Water Table

Water Table

Reservoirs, weirs, locks and harbour walls. The places where a building meets water and the water makes a second building underneath it.

Water Table has run since 2019: covered reservoirs in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the Forth and Clyde locks, four harbours on the Fife coast, a flooded quarry in Argyll, and a pumping station in Ayrshire that is still in service and let me in twice. Almost every frame is made at slack water or on a still morning, because the project depends entirely on the reflection being usable — a breath of wind and the second building is gone.

Running since2019
FramesAbout 300
SitesTwenty-six, all in Scotland
ConditionsSlack water or a still morning. Nothing usable above about 5 knots
Since photographedTwo reservoirs decommissioned, one now a data centre
A concrete weir with a smooth unbroken sheet of water going over it
Weir, River Kelvin. The sheet holds unbroken for about four metres.
The interior of a Victorian covered reservoir, brick vaults reflected in shallow standing water
Covered reservoir, Edinburgh. Built 1876. Drained to 30mm for inspection.
A harbour wall stepping into the water with the tide line legible on the stone
Harbour steps, Fife. Low water, and the tide line does the drawing.
A canal lock chamber seen from above with the gates closed
Lock chamber, Forth and Clyde. Gates closed, chamber full.

Still water does something no architect can specify: it builds the whole thing again, upside down and slightly wrong, and then holds it there for as long as the wind allows. I have stood at a lock for two hours waiting for the surface to settle and come away with nothing. When it does settle, the frame stops being a photograph of a structure and becomes a photograph of a symmetry, and I have never got used to the moment it happens.

A pumping station elevation seen across a still channel, doubled in the reflection
Pumping station, Ayrshire. Still in service.
A flooded quarry with a sheer rock face doubled in glassy water
Flooded quarry, Argyll. About ninety metres deep.
An aqueduct crossing a valley seen square on in flat light
Aqueduct, Stirlingshire. 1790. Available as a print.
A sea wall and steps at low tide, wet stone and weed
Sea wall, East Neuk. Two hours either side of low water.
A circular filtration tank seen from directly above with clean water
Filter bed, Glasgow. From the maintenance gantry. Available as a print.
A stone bridge and its own perfect reflection making a complete circle
Bridge, Perthshire. Six visits before the water was flat. Available as a print.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the water authority's inspection team, who took me into two covered reservoirs during drain-downs and gave me exactly forty minutes in each; to Iona Tarbert at the canal trust, for the lock schedules and for explaining that the water is only still between operations; and to Struan Inverleith, who sat in a cold car at the quarry for most of a Sunday so that I could have the one frame where nothing moved.