People on MUNI Platform. San Francisco, California. May 26, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Street scene from an overhead perspective of several people waiting for the train on a MUNI platform in San Francisco.
There is a good chance that this photograph isn’t going to make a lot of sense to some of my friends who enjoy my landscape work – but it is actually one of my personal favorite recent photographs. There are several things that I like about it. For one, I actually like the mostly muted color palette of grays and blues, but with the warmer yellow stripes on the platform and the two odd “international orange” pylon bases. I also like the combination of a strong symmetry with a bunch of elements that are anything but perfect and symmetrical: the positions of the five figures, the paving stones with squares of dirt, the slightly off-angle barricades. I can also look at this as an abstract image of shapes, most of which are related in some way to rectangles. And then there is the interesting (to me, at least) arrangement of the people into three groups: the two guys on the right who seem to be looking up towards my camera position, the couple who appear to be gazing at each other, and the girl on the left who is facing the other direction and seemingly oblivious to her surroundings as she talks on the phone. I also like the transparent curving wall beyond the four figures at the right and the position of the two trash cans (trash cans!) between them and the girl.
You certainly don’t have to share my enthusiasm for this photograph, but perhaps you’ll understand a bit of what I think I see in it.
This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
keywords: man, woman, people, cell, phone, couple, gaze, trash, can, barricade, curve, roof, platform, cement, concrete, aggregate, tile, rail, track, muni, trail, transit, station, fence, curb, city, downtown, urban, street, paving, san francisco, california, usa, travel, stock, king, barrier, transparent, curve
Funny. Hadn’t even thought about that possibility. In fairness, I’ve actually done photography on muni trains and Caltrain before and never been bothered at all. I was actually more concerned that someone from the Giants or AT&T Park might get after me since I’m not exactly shooting your typical point and shoot gear – but they’ve been cool, too.
I really like this shot. Nice work. And you weren’t even hassled by Muni cops I bet. *cough*