Turret Skylight, SFMOMA. San Francisco, California. May 31, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.
Midday light inside beneath the skylight in the atrium of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
For the time being I’m not going to write all that I could write about this photograph – that would be far too much to post here. Nonetheless, this might be a slightly longer “photo post” than usual.
The subject is the skylight in the turret at the top of the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Just below the skylight there is a catwalk that crosses from one side of the cylindrical upper area of the atrium to the other, and this is a place of magical light in almost any conditions. I visited this past Friday since the museum closes after today (June 2, 2013) for two years for renovation and expansion, and I wanted to have one last chance to wander around in the museum and I wanted to see the wonderful Garry Winogrand exhibit.
During the “wandering” part of my visit I went to this catwalk and thought about how I could photograph it. It is almost embarrassing to photograph in this spot, since it is one of the most obvious iconic places to grab an iPhone shot, and many other visitors were doing just that. I first made a few symmetrical photographs looking up at the skylight in a more direct way and then thought that I’d try a few “off kilter” shots, perhaps with the Winogrand images – which often tilt and twist in surprising ways – still in my mind. Having also just spent time in the museum’s wonderful exhibit of classic black and white work by other photographers, I was in a bit of a black and white state of mind, and I was pretty certain that this would end up as a monochrome image.
(For those who wonder about such things, this photograph was made with the small Fujifilm X-E1 camera and the wonderful Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 lens.)
G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist whose subjects include the Pacific coast, redwood forests, central California oak/grasslands, the Sierra Nevada, California deserts, urban landscapes, night photography, and more.
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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.
Ahhh, this blog post is a disapointment for me – not because of you or the photograph, but because I learnt that the SFMOMA is closed now. I was already looking forward to visiting it this summer :-(
Luckily San Francisco has other architectural highlights …. which one would you suggest?
Florian.
Florian, I hear you! I live here in the Bay Area and I was caught off-guard by the closing. I knew that there was going to be remodeling and other construction work, but I had not realized how soon the museum would close nor how long it would remain closed. Fortunately, I was able to take the day on Friday and head up there to visit one more time before the closure. (I especially wanted to see the Garry Winogrand exhibit, and it was everything I expected.)
In the partial good news department, I understand that the institution of SFMOMA will continue to function during the closure, with exhibits taking place at other locations in the San Francisco area. See the SFMOMA web site for more details about this. Fortunately, San Francisco does have a range of other museums of all sorts. If you are interested in the architecture of museums, you’ll want to visit the recently (in relative terms) remodeled De Young museum in Golden Gate Park along with the near by natural history museum and aquarium. The De Young is, in my view, a very interesting place in its own right, and the art shown there is first-rate.
If you are especially interested in photography, check the schedule for the Pier 24 Photography Gallery. This is a rather unique place on the waterfront – a private facility whose shows are open to the public by advance reservation. Do a Google search and see what is coming in and reserve a time during your visit.
Beyond that, San Francisco is a great place in which to simply get out and walk around. It is architecturally eclectic and incredibly diverse, as you perhaps already know.
Dan