Tag Archives: blinds

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Urban/Street

Window and Wall in Summer Light

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Window and Wall in Summer Light
High summer light falls across the walls of a building with white window frames.

Window and Wall in Summer Light. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

High summer light falls across the walls of a building with white window frames.

There are still more of the pandemic photographs — the “postcards from pandemia” — that I have made from time to time since our world changed back in March of 2020. During that time I did a lot of urban walking in a several mile radius of my home, and I always carry a camera when I walk. On many walks the camera remained in my bag, but every so often some element of this area would catch my attention and the camera would come out, I’d make a few exposures, and then I’d continue walking.

I’m now not quite certain where this subject is, exactly. The style of construction is common in older neighborhoods around here. One thing that appeals to me about a photograph like this one is that it can be about many different things. On one hand it is a visual record of the urban architecture of a certain time and place. But it also, to me at least, also a little study in composition and forms, mainly rectangles. It also is a kind of minimalism, consisting of really only three colors — the dark windows, the blue wall, and the white window frame. There are two slightly mysterious elements that create visual dissonance for me. One is the diagonal shadow — really the only line in the scene that isn’t a perfect vertical or horizontal — that comes from some unknown and unseen source outside the frame. Another is that slightly dark and mysterious shaded area near the upper left.

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, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Window, San Francisco

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Window, San Francisco
A window covered with security bars

Window, San Francisco. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A window covered with security bars.

If this were my window — on this particular street, in this particular position, in this particular city — I suppose that I would install a security system like this, too. (It isn’t exactly a “bad” area, but it is one where many thousands of people walk past daily, and the window is right along the sidewalk.)

But that’s not really why I made the photograph. I thought the gently suffused lighting was attractive, and I liked the combination of colors, shapes, and light and shadow. Aside from whatever intrinsic value or meaning this photograph may (or may not) have, it is another example of the fact that there are things to see everywhere, and that, in my view, photographing them is a useful way to “tune up” your ability to see things that not everyone might notice.

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: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Urban/Street

Stairwell, Winter Shadows

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Stairwell, Winter Shadows
Shadows of bare winter trees on windows in a Metropolitan Museum stairwell.

Stairwell, Winter Shadows. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Shadows of bare winter trees on windows in a Metropolitan Museum stairwell.

This is perhaps a bit of a mind game of a photograph. I’ll explain why in a moment. I made it while visiting the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art on a cold winter day last December. We were there mainly to see the David Hockney exhibit and then, once we realized what it was, the remarkable Michelangelo exhibit nearby. It is also true that we were there on that particular day partly because that was when we happened to be in New York, partly because we wanted to see the exhibits, and partly because it was a freezing cold day! For visitors to New York City in winter, the museums are good options when it is just plain too cold for a lot of outdoor stuff. (Nonetheless, we still did do a lot of walking in this frigid weather.)

This little corner of the museum is at the end of a series of galleries where an open stairway connects several floors together. There are windows, but they are covered with a sort of fabric scrim that allows diffused light to enter, blocks views of the outdoor landscape, but does project the shadows of nearby trees. The bare, winter branches silhouetted on this window and others nearby caught my attention. But the more I looked the more I saw the almost bizarre and perspective-defying combination of lines from the angled wall, the floor and handrail, and more. In the end, this photograph is perhaps of several things, but also about the strange conjunction of their forms.

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: Northern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Building, Windows, Blinds

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Building, Windows, Blinds
Building, Windows, Blinds

Building, Windows, Blinds. San Jose, California. December 24, 2009. © Copyright 2009 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An urban building with vertical windows and blinds

I think I’ll stick with the black and white theme for one more day. This is a photograph I made five years ago. I remember stopping at this oddly plain little building on a walk not far from where I live. It was Christmas Eve day, and things were slowing down in anticipation of holiday festivities, so I went out on one of my local “photo walks” in the surrounding neighborhood. I do this from time to time for reasons that range from the desire to practice and tune up my “seeing” to wanting to see my surroundings more clearly — there is nothing like wandering with a camera in hand to encourage me to see things I would otherwise overlook. (One of the first times I did this in the neighborhood I was shocked to notice the upper stories on nearby business buildings that I had walked past for years.)

I think this must be some sort of office building, and perhaps behind these tightly shut blinds there is some sort of personal world that the rest of us cannot see. The outside of the building seems incredibly boring and lacking in any intentional design sense, yet the odd but functional windows start to look very strange when shot close up and without the rest of the building visible. The late afternoon sun was casting shadows from nearby trees to produce the mottled light.

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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