Eight Minutes Old

After the two recent posts on my current photo series ‘Quadrants’, today I’d like to show you a single picture again. It is related to the series, though, as is was shot in the German city of Frankfurt and shows the city’s skyscrapers, too. In the following, I will discuss its composition. It is always interesting to see which details I find in my own photos that I did not realize when I pressed the trigger.

I very much like the composition of this shot. Lots of diagonal lines, triangles and plain areas. The center of the picture is defined by the head of a street lantern, attracting the eye. The dark lantern’s post divides the picture with a diagonal line in a harmonic ratio. The lantern is surrounded, or better: framed, by the two tall buildings. The perspective and distortion of the architecture gives you a feeling of their height. In addition to the buildings, the lantern head is framed to the bottom by a short airplane trail. That  condensation trail spreads between the left building and the lantern post, touching neither of them. Actually, no element of the photo is in front of another one, giving it a lighter feel, I think.

The geometry of the picture is beautifully emphasized by the black and white. The graduation is mild but there is enough contrast in every part of the photo. The sky is not over-exposed but shows a slight gradient, becoming lighter to the right. I just realized that the airplane is heading for that lighter part. Guess that helps creating the mood of the picture.

Tags: Frankfurt, urban, Airplanes, Architecture, black and white, Buildings, Composition, Condensation Trails, EF 24mm f/2.8, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Geometry, Germany, red filter, Skyscrapers , Sky, Windows

Here comes the second part of my Quadrants photo series is from Sydney, Australia. For a description of the project, please have a look at the last post. Basically, I take black and white photos of skyscrapers from a special, vertical perspective to point out the order in urban planning from a human point of view. Up to now I have done this architecture photography in two big cities, Frankfurt in Germany and Sydney in Australia.

Compared to the pictures taken in Frankfurt, one problem becomes obvious: the Frankfurt photos have been produced on a day with completely blue sky. While the weather in Australia used to be fine, too, the sky does show some clouds. I used a dark red filter to darken the blue sky, giving me a contrast between the sun-lit facades of the buildings and the space in between. Unfortunately, this also increases the contrast between the clouds and the sky. That way in many pictures the sky is not as empty as in the Frankfurt shots, which makes the black and white photographs a bit more visually disturbed.  A professional Artist might have wanted to wait for better conditions. But as that was not possible for me, I have to take what I got. And I am happy with several of them.

For now, these two cities are the only ones where I worked on this series. I would very much like to continue it in Paris, the La Defence area should be perfect for this concept.

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This time, I will not only present and discuss one photo. No, you can enjoy a bunch of them at the same time. The reasons for this are manifold, but the crucial factor was that Marc from Take Out Photo announced his new Monthly Special: Concept.

After I have already missed last month’s special on masking (even though I did use masks for my faked UFO photos), I better participate early this month. The topic Concept is great. I prefer these more abstract ideas over technical processes. Furthermore, working in a conceptual manner is what makes a photographer an artist. There are way too many people out in the web who chase after ‘the perfect shot’. But in my opinion, true beauty lies in a series of pictures that are build around a concept. Only then they can communicate s meaning in the spaces between the individual shots. The interplay of pictures activates our mind, making us wonder: what is the reason to take these photos, why in this way, what is the motivation … what is the concept?

By now most of you know my Touristscopes series, which is highly conceptual. I don’t want to bore you with them again. Luckily for me (and you), I am currently going through my stacks of negatives, putting together a portfolio. It will feature some of my conceptual photographic works. I will create a webpage with them, where I can present several series, instead on focussing on single photos. But that will take a lot more time to finish. In the meantime I start by presenting my newest conceptual series. It is called ‘Quadrants’ (that might change in the future). Before I go on, explaining my motivation and, yes, the concept, I guess it is best to show you some pictures first.

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The last two rolls of film from Australia are developed, but I still keep on scanning. Can’t hear the scanner-sound anymore. But it will take some more hours to finish with that. Right now, I only have a collection of raw scans on my harddrive. Editing them, even in the most simple form (removing dust, one or two scratches and adjusting the graduation curve) will keep me busy in the weeks to come.

But the above picture I had to share with you now. When I scanned this shot, I fell in love with it right away. I took it at the Sydney Opera House, where I was looking for pictures of architectural details and maybe some tourists (it’s a hobby of mine to photograph people watching things and sceneries. Don’t know why ). The contrasts in illumination were extreme, owing to the strong Australian summer-sunlight. That allowed me to make this silhouette photo. A man with a backpack is standing in front of one of the Opera House buildings, looking up to the impressive architecture. He stands in the shadow, but in front of a streak of light which falls through a gap between two parts of the opera. This results in him being a shadow figure in front of the illuminated area. Part of the building is well lit by the sun, so one can recognise the building. And as a bonus, at least to me, are the contrasty clouds in the sky.

I like the simple, abstract structures in this one, which combine with the human perspective in form of the tourist. But he, too is abstract, only a silhouette which might be filled with anybody.

Tags: Sydney, Architecture, Australia, black and white, Clouds, Contrast, Film Photography, Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Human, Light, Scanning, Shadow, Silhouette, Sky, Sydney Opera House, Tourism, Tourist