Curved Windows, Stairs, and Reflections – Getty Center. Los Angeles, California. December 30, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

View through curved windows into the central rotunda at the Getter Center with stairs, people, and reflections.

This and a few of my other recent Getty Center photographs are at least partially “about” complexity of several sorts. This isn’t a simple image. I saw quite a few things here when I made it. I may have first been drawn to the reflections on the curving windows of this central building at the Center – it is the first building you enter as you come up from the tram, here photographed from the inner courtyard on the other side of the building. The reflections become almost as solid as some of the other elements since these “other” things are distorted both in shape and color by the windows. I also liked the zigzag pattern of the interior stairway and the two figures at the top balanced by the single sitting figure at the bottom and perhaps the walking figure near the right side. The light was interesting. It was a cloudy and rainy day. (In a full-size image you can see the raindrops on the foreground window.) Besides the odd green cast – more on that in a moment – because the light was diffused and coming from all directions in these misty and rainy conditions, I had a better chance to balance the exposure between the inside and outside areas. There are curves everywhere in the scene – starting with the curving windows, including the curving staircase, the outline of the round interior space, the far curved windows seen clearly in the upper part of the frame, and so on. Finally, as I thought about what to do with the narrow triangle of outside sidewalk at the lower left, it occurred to me that having it there enhanced the odd quality of the green-windowed interior space, and this space even began to remind be a bit of a giant aquarium.

This photograph is not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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