Brutalism primary photography

Initial photography

Following my initial research into brutalist and soviet architecture, I decided to wander around leeds finding harsh/ concrete buildings to feature in my initial cover designs in order to explore a melancholy yet harsh atmosphere of Russian post punk.  

Testing out visuals/ format

These two examples stuck to using a simple black and white colour palette in order to achieve a dull mood to share the angst of the genre; I really like the contrast of the buildings against the sky, as the bright white offers some negative space to add drama to the image. I also used a halftone effect to add grittiness and to consider the preparation for screenprinting; as well as this, the halftone and grain that I added provided a moody/ low budget atmosphere which links to the poverty in post Soviet Russia. 

I also decided to frame the images with more negative space and add some colour. I think adding the colour actually works quite nicely, as it offers contrast to the images darkness; the negative space also adds more drama and could be used to feature text? However, I feel like this format for album covers is done quite a lot - could I consider a wrap around effect? Additionally, these designs are definitely not confident enough and seem to lack a true connection to the music; they need more textures possibly.