Tag Archives: door

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

Stage Door

Image September 26, 2020 G Dan Mitchell 2 Comments

This photograph qualifies as part of the “postcards from pandemic” group, as I made it while on one of the long local walks that I’ve been taking in and around my neighborhood since the lock-downs began six months ago. Yes, it has been that long. The good news is that if all goes according to plan we might be almost half way to a vaccine and the beginning of a return to something like normalcy.

This photograph is also an example of something that afflicts most (though perhaps not quite all) photographers, namely an interest or even obsession with form, color, and various kinds of patterns, even when seen in mundane locations. This is a side door to a school theater — hardly an iconic subject! But as I walked past at just the right moment, the shadow diagonally bisected this very blue door, and the angles of shadows and stairways converged in interesting ways.

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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

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

Double-Five

Image July 8, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Weathered, decaying subjects and subjects with strong patterns attract me, and this one works on both counts. I photographed it a few years ago while wandering around in San Francisco and poking my camera into odd little corners and alleys. This is in a shoreline area that was once a location of true maritime industry, but which is today much like the rest of San Francisco — in other words a place for small offices, start-ups, restaurants and similar enterprises.

The stenciled numbers did catch my attention when I first saw this little scene. Initially I think that their weathered character may have been responsible. But more recently I have wondered about them. Do they still mean something or are they now remnants divorced from an earlier context? Is the message “5” or is it “55?” And what, if anything, is the relationship between the two different fonts used?

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Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Pandemia, Photographs: Sequoia-Kings Canyon, Photographs: Urban/Street

The Back Door

Image June 25, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

The rear entrance to a local market.

So, can we imagine that this is the, uh, “urban wilderness?” It does contains some relatively very wild areas, and there is wildlife of a sort. If you look around carefully enough at the right time you can find a degree of solitude.

This is a back entrance to a grocery store, photographed across a deserted parking lot. Someone has abandoned their cart next to the door, perhaps expecting the store employees to discover it there and reclaim it.

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: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Open Door and Stairway, Night

Image May 14, 2020 G Dan Mitchell Leave a comment

Originally I contemplated adding this to the “Postcards From Pandemic” series — the mood and subject seem about right. In the end I did not, since I’ve decided that those photographs will all be made during the lock-down and whatever follows. This photograph is almost five years old.

There is, for me, a lot to ponder in this photograph. Let’s start with the obvious — it is not a pretty picture. Despite the fact that the scene is so gritty, I was attracted by the colors, textures, and all that stuff, apart from the underlying reality of the scene. But, obviously, we have to ask some questions about a scene like this: Who lives here? What must it be like to enter your home through such a portal?