Street photography doesn’t actually mean taking photos of the street. But it doesn’t rule it out, either. If we stop looking for conventionally photogenic subjects and search, instead, for interesting shapes, colours, and compositions, all sorts of possibilities open up.
We’re used to reading markings on the street the way we read text on the page. We have learned to take in the meaning without seeing the graphic marks that are used to convey it. Only when we see text in a language that we don’t understand can we focus on and appreciate the graphic shapes that make up the letterforms, words, and paragraphs.
We need to learn to see the world around us as though it is composed in a foreign language. To do this, we have to consciously bypass our automatic practice of reading the meanings of things, including text and symbols, and pay attention to the graphic elements that make them up. When we do this, things are freed from their designated place in the hierarchy. In this visual democracy, all graphic elements are equal and deserve equal attention.
The challenge for the photographer, then, is to create a composition with the available graphic elements by choosing the best vantage point, angle, and framing. By changing our position, we can arrange what we see in the viewfinder the way a graphic designer orders things on a page. Familiar letterforms and symbols can be treated as abstract shapes as we try different compositions.
The street isn’t just a thoroughfare bordered by buildings and activated by passing vehicles and pedestrians. It is also a canvas covered with lines, shapes, symbols, and text that we can use to create compositions with or without other recognisable subjects.
Download the photos
The photos in this post are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 New Zealand (CC BY 3.0 NZ) license (required attribution: Mark McGuire). You can download the full-resolution original images from here.
What’s next?
I’ve recently been photographing shopfronts, reflections, and umbrellas in the rain. I plan to publish a post about one of these topics, or something else, next weekend. You can receive the next post by email by subscribing below.
What do you think?
Feel free to leave a comment at the end of this post. Just say hello if you like.
Street signs and markings are good fodder for the photographer. Less is more!
Another reminder that inspiration can come from lots of places. Nice Post.
D.W.
https://dweversole.substack.com/p/what-i-learned-from-an-invisible