Category Archives: Photographs: Urban/Street

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

Window, MOMA

Image January 4, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A window at the Museum of Modern Art, Manhattan.

Virtually every New York City involves a visit to one or more Manhattan museums. On this visit we spent a morning at the Frick Collection and a half of a day at the recently remodeled/updated Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). My reasons for visiting museums often go beyond the obvious one — seeing the collection — and include photographing people and architecture. For years I have been attracted to these exterior windows at MOMA, both for their views of Manhattan and for their own intrinsic opportunities to photograph form, light, color, and sometimes people.

About MOMA… the recent expansion and update has gotten a lot of attention, and one reason we chose to visit was that this was our first opportunity to see the changes. Mostly I think they are fine and even positive. But based on this one visit (admittedly during a holiday peak period) I have a concern: it was so incredibly crowded that in some cases the experience was seriously degraded. In some rooms the crowds were so thick that it was literally impossible to move at times. There’s a ton of wonderful work at MOMA and it is worth visiting… but try to go at a less-busy time if at all possible.

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

Halal Food Cart

Image January 3, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two men working a Halal Food Cart, Manhattan.

We spent a week in (mostly) Manhattan during the holidays, visiting family and wandering around this remarkable city. I made this photograph on Christmas Day as we walked up Fifth Avenue and then by cross-streets past some iconic locations, joining the throngs there at this time of year.

While the dense urban design and tall buildings might be the first thing that comes to mind when we consider Manhattan, I think that people may be the more central characteristic. Once of the train or out of the car, most everyone seems to walk here, and the sidewalks are filled with just about every kind of person imaginable — Americans and people from all over the world. In places and a busy times, the crowds can be quite something. These days, every were you go you see these food carts, even on the coldest days.

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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Emergency Exit Only

Image December 8, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Two trash containers in the doorway of a San Francisco building, with “Emergency Exit Only” signs.

So, yes, trash bins in the doorway of a San Francisco business — photographed on one of my street photography walks in The City. I’m tempted to just leave that there with no further explanation.

OK, a few hints. You could just look at it as two trash bins in a doorway — after all, that is what you see here. But if you enjoy such things, you could look at it in a variety of other ways, ranging from the mundane (code violations?) to more metaphorical. Your choice.

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

Urban Geometry

Image December 3, 2019 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

A woman walks past a building with a display under construction.

One element of the urban/street world that fascinates me is the juxtaposition of “perfect” structures — geometric patterns, shiny metal, highly designed forms — with the imperfect and always-deteriorating nature of this world — peeling paint, dirty sidewalks, constant construction and reconstruction, accumulated dirt, and so forth. Long ago the fact that urban structures fell short of the theoretical perfection offered in architectural drawings bothered me, but now I find it fascinating.

This is an example of one of those little scenes that always seem to catch my eye. The facade fo this building is, from one perspective, quite boring, even though its patterned wall and metal lights depart from typical (and often rather plain) urban surfaces. But notice some interesting things about it. For example, because the sidewalk and street are inclined, the designer was faced with a question: align the metal form beneath the windows with the sidewalk or align them with one another? And if you align with the sidewalk — as is done here — what do you do about the size of the windows and about their alignment? (The sizes were kept the same, leaving the lower bank out of alignment… but they are “corrected” in the second level!) Beyond that, the contrast with the op-art nature of the under-construction window dressing is fascinating. I waited for a passer-by to enter the scene before making the exposure.

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