Category Archives: Photographs: Structures and Objects

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bricks, Reflection

June 8, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Bricks and water reflecting urban sky.

Walking up Market Street in San Francisco I was watching out for anything that could be photographically interesting — architecture, people, vehicles, light — when I looked down and saw this little vignette of… not much at all really. Perhaps someone had been cleaning the street earlier, and now a puddle of water covered some sidewalk bricks and flowed over the gaps between others.

I stopped, more or less in the middle of the sidewalk, likely forcing a few people to take a path around me or perhaps just wonder what I was photographing with my camera pointed straight down. What I saw was, first, the water itself. Then I saw the narrow vertical band of lighter tones, where there was a break between reflected buildings. I only paused for a moment to make a couple of exposures, and then I continued on.

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

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

San Francisco Street Scene

June 4, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Walls, doors, gates, conduits, signs, trash containers, peeling paint, reflections along a San Francisco street

I’m indulging my fascination with street scenes once again today. This photograph comes from a morning spent walking across San Francisco late last week. I arrived early in the City by train, got off, and walked by an unplanned and mostly spontaneous route across downtown, across Chinatown, through North Beach, and almost to the touristy Pier 39 before looping back to my starting point on The Embarcadero to catch a train back home.

This is a familiar sort of San Francisco scene, especially to those who wander though the City of foot, though I could find similar spots in many other urban areas. In a world where we often see things that have been carefully designed and unified, spots like this seem to occupy the opposite end of the spectrum. It would be easy to walk past and not see it — I’ve certainly done so many times — but once I stop and look I’m often amazed at the density of visually dissonant elements that are thrown together. Almost everything seem like it was initially utilitarian, but gradually a sort of near randomness seems to have crept in, and now the colors are wild and contrasting, paint is peeling, textures are varied, a few signs intrude, trash cans lean against doorways, and the sidewalk tilts.

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

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Fence and Metal Wall

June 3, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

In some ways there is not much to say about this photograph and in some ways there should be much to say about it. But that’s never stopped me before… While I could say more about the subject and the circumstances of the photograph, I don’t think it is that important to do so. I’ll limit myself to saying that I made the photograph while walking through part of San Francisco and that it lies somewhere between being a “quick snap” (which it isn’t) and an image I completely understood at the moment I made it (it isn’t quite that either).

I’ve recently read some (occasionally odd) online discussions of minimalism in photography — what it is and what it isn’t. My ideas about minimalism are only partially based on visual concepts of the “ism,” and more based on my experience with musical minimalism, which I’ve known about for quite a long time. In a sense there are two threads that may ultimately arrive at a similar place. One simply tries to create an image (or other sound/visual object) from as little content as possible. Another may include denser content but rather the representing real things in an objective way it presents patterns or processes to the viewer/listener. (Composer Steve Reich’s concept comes to mind: “Music as a gradual process.”) In both cases I think the object encourages the viewer listener to look past the (often minimal) surface content of the work and into the material and structure of the thing. How it works might be more important than what it is.

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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” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Textures, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stone Steps

June 2, 2015 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

There was no particular plan that took me here this time — I was following a somewhat random route across The City, dictated by whims, which direction had the green light, and whatever seemed interesting. Starting at the CalTrain station, I worked my way along the Embarcadero and then heading up Market before cutting north and following a wandering route through Chinatown (studiously avoiding Grant), though part of North Beach and then nearly to the touristy Fisherman’s Wharf area.

I have walked past and photographed this building before, and I may have even photographed the steps, though in a very different way. This time the steps caught my attention. The photograph might seem monochromatic, but if you look closely you may spot a few small, brown autumn leaves on the steps.