22-JUN-2009
Art Gallery, Astoria, Oregon, 2009
The owners of this gallery have attempted to turn the pillared entrance of their vintage building into an art form as well. The purple palette that dominates the scene continues on the window frame as well. The neutral gray building makes a perfect backdrop for such colorful extravagance. I abstract the scene by isolating the colorful door and window within my frame.
01-JUN-2009
Mural, San Jacinto Street, Austin, Texas, 2009
An enormous mural dominates the scene here, depicting various symbols close to the heart of Austonians. The colors tell the story here, offering a purplish, pinkish homage to the city and its western heritage. Using a 24mm wideangle lens, I was able to get about half the mural into the frame from across the street. I waited for someone to walk below the mural in order to give it a sense of scale. Finally, a pedestrian entered my frame, and I caught him just as the diagonal thrust of his leg echoed the diagonal thrust of the huge fence post that anchors the mural behind him.
09-APR-2009
Public art, Tucson, Arizona, 2009
All three primary colors are present in this image – yellow, blue, and red. The image is about public art, and I have framed it geometrically, as in a Mondrian painting. This display is located near the Tucson Museum of Art.
12-APR-2009
Bench, Nogales, Arizona, 2009
The red oval on the back of this bench resembles a set of parted lips. Yet the young woman who sits upon this bench incongruously covers her own lips with her fingers. Without color, this image would not tell the same story.
24-MAR-2009
Thirty Fourth Street, New York City, New York, 2009
I find it always fascinating that fragments of the past manage to survive amidst the towers of contemporary Manhattan. I wanted to tell that story in this image. It’s the story of a tiny story red-brick building, hemmed in by towering condos and office buildings on all sides. Once again, if this image had been rendered in black and white, that story would lose its edge. The red building would turn gray, and while still small in comparison to its neighbors, it would not stand out as strongly as it does here in color.
19-MAR-2009
Commuters, Grand Central Terminal, New York City, New York, 2009
I initially intended this image to be black and white – further abstracting the already blurred figures rushing across the spot of light falling on the vast marble floor of the station. But when I saw how the small orange glow coming from the illuminated display on the cell phone of the woman at the center of the image created a focal point and added much to the meaning of this photograph, I retained the color. If I had converted this image to black and white as originally planned, the phone would vanish as a focal point, and the image would fail to express its multi-taking message. The lesson here is clear: it is usually best to let our content determine the form of an image, rather than to allow the form of an image to dictate its content and dilute the message in the process.
18-MAR-2009
Melting sculpture, City Hall Park, New York City, New York, 2009
Created by New York sculptor Robert Melee, this work of contemporary public art is one of four such sculptures on display through April of 2009 in City Hall Park. I photographed this one using the park’s Victorian fence as a foreground layer. Melee’s figures began as human forms, and were gradually abstracted by layers of brightly colored paint, giving the appearance of a meltdown. The artist says their meaning is meant to be elusive – “There are no answers, just suggestions on psychological states.” Photographing another artist’s art is always a challenge. I build my image around the heavily saturated primary colors that energize the abstracted figure, squeezed here between an ornate fence and the historic, softly focused former newspaper buildings that fill the background layer.
13-NOV-2008
Butcher shop, Douz, Tunisia, 2008
I try to look for similar colors that can tie the various elements of a picture together. Such is the case in this image of a butcher shop in the market of Douz, a small town near the Sahara Desert in southern Tunisia. I was drawn to it not just because of the matching blue door and blue window – I also liked the layer of blue provided by the tarp in the wheelbarrow that stands along with a bicycle just in front of the shop. All of these elements provide colorful context for a local shopper who stares at us from the doorway.
09-NOV-2008
Observer, Kairouan, Tunisia, 2008
Primary colors always draw the eye and provide energy to an image. Here, the energy comes the blue doorway framing the red headscarf of the woman who is observing the flow of tourists walking past her house. The woman is backlit, which abstracts the image, and adds a degree of mystery to the scene.
02-SEP-2008
Manhattan sunset, New York City, New York, 2008
I built the mood of this image upon the lingering colors of a September sunset. Looking north from a sixth floor window of a New York City apartment building, I watched and waited as the sun set to my left, bathing the skyline of central Manhattan in a rich reddish gold light. The longer I waited, the more the scene fell into shadow. As I made this image, only the art deco spire of the Chrysler building and a few apartment buildings on the right reflected colors of the fading sun, while soft gray clouds added a layer of dramatic texture over the blue evening sky.
20-MAR-2008
Sari, Jaipur, India, 2008
I photographed this woman as she waited for a light to change at a street corner.
I shoot from behind to abstract her and call attention to the colors of her sari. As she waited, she placed her hand on her hand, as if to rest it.
27-MAR-2008
Street palette, Jaipur, India, 2008
I play the strong colors of the saris against the muted colors of the wall in dappled light here. I saw the space between the end of the food cart and the advertising poster, and waited for pedestrians to walk into it. These women, in their wind-blown saris, were the most colorful to pass through that space while I was shooting here.