Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows

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Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows
Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

Brick Wall, Balcony Shadows. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows from metal balconies slant across brick wall

I don’t think I can up with a comprehensive list of all of the variations on urban and street subjects, but there are a lot of them. You can, of course, focus on photographing people — whether street portraits, with our without the subject’s cooperation, or anything up to groups and crowds. You can treat the urban environment as its own sort of landscape, looking for form and color and light in the familiar ways. You can think of it as a way of simply making a record of transitory things that will soon be changed or bone. It can focus on architecture. And the list goes on.

I think of this as a sort of street landscape. This New York wall, at this time of day and during this season, transforms into something that I can’t imagine the builders understood when they constructed it. My bet is that they were making a practical brick wall, with practical windows, a simple pair of balconies (probably designed to save money), and fire escapes. But, as was apparent when I walked past in December, becomes a canvas for a wild conjunction of shapes and textures and shadows.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Museum Lobby

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Museum Lobby
Visitors milling about in the lobby of SFMOMA

Museum Lobby. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors milling about in the lobby of SFMOMA

It has been a while, and I was more than due for one of my periodic walking days in San Francisco. As per the usual plan, I was out the front door of our house long before dawn, to the train station by bus, and then by train to San Francisco, arriving just before sunrise. There were clouds over the City to my north and west, so I headed to the edge of the Bay, where the skies were clear to the east and early sun shone through on the shoreline and the City. I photographed along the waterfront for a while, and eventually wanted past the Ferry Building and up into the City north of Market Street.

I had a plan to circle back to SFMoMA by late morning, since the expansive Walker Evans show ends there in about a week. I arrived and took a break from my own photograph to view his and that of his contemporaries. (To anyone in the SF Bay Area who likes this sort of thing, go now! There is a ton of work in this show, and it ends a few days into February.) Evans evokes a mixed response for me. I share an interest in some of the subjects that interested him, including certain kinds of shops and other urban structures. His photographs of common tools are exquisite, and the WPA photographs of sharecroppers are really great. Other work impresses me less, and some of the photographs of objects and buildings (though not all of the latter!) impress me at times as being snapshots. But still, there’s a lot of great work in the show, and Evans had a big influence on the ways that many of us see. Once I completed my time in the Evans exhibit, it was time to leave and head back to the train station. But before I left I made a few photographs inside the museum, where I saw for the first time the patters of these lights reflecting on the floor in many places.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Window And Shadows

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Window And Shadows
Afternoon light forms shadows behind a window at the Whitney Museum, New York City

Window And Shadows. New York City. July 3, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Afternoon light forms shadows behind a window at the Whitney Museum, New York City

This photograph was made near a window on one of the upper floors of the New Whitney Museum in Manhattan. At the west end of the upper floors, near the end of the main corridors outside the gallery, there are small windows that overlook the Hudson River and New Jersey in the distance. At some point on every visit to the Whitney I find myself standing next to one of these windows overlooking this view and trying to make photographs. (I have my rituals — I also go out onto the various terraces and platforms outside the east side of the building and photograph Manhattan and people.)

I don’t think it is a secret that I’m attracted to patterns and shapes, and the angles of shadows cast by light coming through windows often interests me. I only partly see a subject like this as what it objectively is — I’m more likely to think of it simply as light and shadow and texture and shape.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Urban/Street

Five Brothers Fat Enterprise

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Five Brothers Fat Enterprise
A business at the edge of Chinatown, Manhattan

Five Brothers Fat Enterprise. New York City. July 3, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A business at the edge of Chinatown, Manhattan

In early July we spent a week in New York City, visiting relatives, wandering around the city, seeing a few museums, and eating a lot of good food. Oh, and making photographs. We stayed in a small hotel in the area more or less dividing Little Italy from Chinatown, and there was a lot to observe right in the neighborhood, night and day.

If I recall, on this morning we may have been out looking for a place to grab breakfast, or possibly we were staring out on a walk to a further destination. I was in street photographer mode, with my small camera out and at the ready, when we walked past this complex little scene, with the interesting graffiti covered “enterprise,” the man sitting inside, and the fellow in the cross walk waiting to cross the street.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.