Category Archives: Photographs: Architecture

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

Columns, Whitney Museum

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Columns, Whitney Musuem
Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

Columns, Whitney Museum. Manhattan, New York City. December 27, 2015. © Copyright 20165G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Repeating forms of cylindrical columns

I admit it — photographing at the new Whitney Museum in Manhattan almost felt like play. The building is interesting in and off itself, but especially interesting on the high and open outdoor terraces that thrust out from the building toward the city. Although there are no people in this photograph — in fact, I had to take some care to ensure that was the case — the location was also a prime place to photograph people.

These columns occupy a corner, up against a wall, on one of the upper floor outdoor terraces. Their positions allow light to shine on them from multiple directions and on this very cloudy day the light was soft and luminous. Although this is the sort of thing that I might prefer to shoot from the tripod, I was working in street photographer mode and therefore had to shoot handheld, carefully lining up the verticals, trying to obscure a few places where the background shone through between the columns, and then waiting for people to pass by and not be in the shot.

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

Black Star, Tiles and People

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Black Star, Tiles and People
People standing on tile near Frank Stella’s “Black Star” at the Whitney Museum

Black Star, Tiles and People. New York City. December 27, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People standing on tile near Frank Stella’s “Black Star” at the Whitney Museum

On our December 2015 visit to New York City we had a chance to visit the new Whitney Museum for the first time. We see the early construction phases on several earlier visits when we went to Chelsea and were pleased to find that it is now open. We went there one morning, began on the top floor, and started to work our way down. (I’m a bit notorious for being able to spend what some regard as far too many hours wandering slowly through museums. Eventually the others in my party left. I stayed and finally joined up with them again hours later.)

The museum’s collection is, of course, fascinating. But the building itself also fascinated me — as a structure it its own right, its placement in its Manhattan surroundings, how it is used to display art, its outdoor areas, and the opportunities it gave me to include people in photographs. I did virtually no photography inside the building, but on the outdoor terraces and walkways it was an entirely different situation. These areas were perhaps the most attractive parts of the architecture for me, with upper levels thrusting out over the Chelsea landscape, and lower levels spreading out horizontally. From below it created a sort of industrial landscape of metal angles, and from above the views downwards were quite something. This photograph looks over one of the upper balconies and straight down onto a tile-covered terrace where Frank Stella’s “Black Star” resides and was being photographed and contemplated by visitors.

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

Terraces, Stairways, Sky

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Terraces, Stairways, Sky
People arrayed on terraces and stairways at the Whitney Museum

Terraces, Stairways, Sky. New York City. December 27, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

People arrayed on terraces and stairways at the Whitney Museum

This is another of my December 2015 photographs from the New York Whitney Museum, and perhaps yet one example of my idiosyncratic approach to visiting museums. I love visiting museums, especially art museums, and I can easily spend many hours or even a full day wandering around and slowly taking things in. It is enough to drive other people who go there with me crazy! (On this visit, the rest of our group finally gave up, left without me, headed to a nearby tavern, had lunch and drinks, and waited for me to finally show up hours later.)

I love to look at the art, the people, and quite often the architectural spaces as well. This was my first visit to the new Whitney Museum, so there was a lot to see. I started on the top level and explored galleries, but soon was distracted by the outdoor terraces, which extent from each of the floors in delightful and interesting ways. On the top floor narrow terraces project out into space above the Chelsea district. On lower levels the terrace areas become larger, and afford urban landscape views of the surrounding city and back upwards toward the exterior of the museum. When I looked up at this mass of windows, terraces, stairways and more I knew there was a photograph (or several) here, and I spent some time with the subject.

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+ | 500px.com | 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: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Lower Manhattan, Bridge Cables

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Lower Manhattan, Bridge Cables
Lower Manhattan as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge

Lower Manhattan, Bridge Cables. New York City. December 26, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Lower Manhattan as seen from the Brooklyn Bridge

In late December 2015 we spent a week in New York, staying in Brooklyn very close to the Bridge. For most of the week we mostly didn’t pay a lot of attention to this landmark, but near the end of our visit we had some time to kill one morning before meeting our sons in Manhattan, so we decided to take the famous walk out onto the bridge. It was a fairly cold morning, threatening rain, so the scene had a wintry appearance. That didn’t stop the crowds though, and we shared the bridge with lots of other walkers.

Photographing from the bridge I made a conscious decision to not make “that photograph” of the cables leading up to the towers. Instead I looked to subjects that included the cables and other elements of the bridge structure either as the primary subject or as part of the setting for other subjects. I decided to “play” a bit in post with this photograph. One way to stretch post-processing skills is to think about how to replicate effects that we see in the work of other photographers. This isn’t about imitating them — it is about trying to broaden one’s skills as a photographer. In this case, I went towards (but not all the way to) a kind of processing that I see in some currently popular urban and architectural photography… and I learned a few things by doing so.

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+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

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