Tag Archives: moma

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco

Museum Lobby

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Museum Lobby
Visitors milling about in the lobby of SFMOMA

Museum Lobby. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Visitors milling about in the lobby of SFMOMA

It has been a while, and I was more than due for one of my periodic walking days in San Francisco. As per the usual plan, I was out the front door of our house long before dawn, to the train station by bus, and then by train to San Francisco, arriving just before sunrise. There were clouds over the City to my north and west, so I headed to the edge of the Bay, where the skies were clear to the east and early sun shone through on the shoreline and the City. I photographed along the waterfront for a while, and eventually wanted past the Ferry Building and up into the City north of Market Street.

I had a plan to circle back to SFMoMA by late morning, since the expansive Walker Evans show ends there in about a week. I arrived and took a break from my own photograph to view his and that of his contemporaries. (To anyone in the SF Bay Area who likes this sort of thing, go now! There is a ton of work in this show, and it ends a few days into February.) Evans evokes a mixed response for me. I share an interest in some of the subjects that interested him, including certain kinds of shops and other urban structures. His photographs of common tools are exquisite, and the WPA photographs of sharecroppers are really great. Other work impresses me less, and some of the photographs of objects and buildings (though not all of the latter!) impress me at times as being snapshots. But still, there’s a lot of great work in the show, and Evans had a big influence on the ways that many of us see. Once I completed my time in the Evans exhibit, it was time to leave and head back to the train station. But before I left I made a few photographs inside the museum, where I saw for the first time the patters of these lights reflecting on the floor in many places.

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: Architecture, Photographs: New York City, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Museum Atrium

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Museum Atrium
Museum Atrium

Museum Atrium. New York City. August 11, 2014. © Copyright 2014 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Light patterns on the atrium wall at the New York Museum of Modern Art

I think I end up visiting the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) every time I visit New York City. It may be partly out of habit, but it is also because there are always things there to see. MOMA always features photography — though the work on display this time was not quite my cup of tea. There are special exhibits, and we were especially surprised and please by the Lygia Clark show. It is always hard to resist — we inevitably fail — visiting the regular collection of famous work in the main galleries.

For me, the space itself is an interesting photographic subject. To some extent it is a good place to photograph people, and I did a bit of that in one particular gallery displaying work that did not particularly impress me — though I noticed one particular museum attendant keeping a very close eye on me. She never said a word, but it seemed like she was always watching me, to the extent that she shows up in perhaps half of the photos I made in that exhibit! The building itself is fascinating, in terms of its own architectural details, how people inhabit the space, and how light plays on its shapes and surfaces. This photograph features the central atrium, which I have photographed in the past, crisscrossed by light patterns stretching down from the roof.

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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Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

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Turret Skylight, SFMOMA
Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA. San Francisco, California. May 31, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Vertical format black and white photograph of light streaming through the upper reaches of the turret skylight above the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

This is a second photograph made during a recent visit to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, or SFMOMA, on the weekend before the place closed for two years of renovation and expansion work. Only days before did I realize that it was about to close and the extraordinary length of the closure, and I quickly adjusted my plans to get up there one more time. I wanted to wander the facility itself, but I especially wanted to see the excellent exhibit of the work of photographer Garry Winogrand.

This skylight is a dominant feature when the museum exterior is viewed from the west, where its tilted and round shape stands out from almost anything else nearby. Inside the building it creates a wonderful space full of light that somehow seems intimate, even though it is the highest point in a very large lobby atrium. The small diameter of the space and the walkway that splits it in two probably contribute to this effect. This photograph is a highly interpreted or stylized view of the subject, and is the result of a great deal of work in post-production – which almost seems somewhat ironic since the photograph was made handheld with a very small rangefinder style mirrorless digital camera.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

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Turret Skylight, SFMOMA
Turret Skylight, SFMOMA

Turret Skylight, SFMOMA. San Francisco, California. May 31, 2013. © Copyright 2013 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Midday light inside beneath the skylight in the atrium of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

For the time being I’m not going to write all that I could write about this photograph – that would be far too much to post here. Nonetheless, this might be a slightly longer “photo post” than usual.

The subject is the skylight in the turret at the top of the atrium at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Just below the skylight there is a catwalk that crosses from one side of the cylindrical upper area of the atrium to the other, and this is a place of magical light in almost any conditions. I visited this past Friday since the museum closes after today (June 2, 2013) for two years for renovation and expansion, and I wanted to have one last chance to wander around in the museum and I wanted to see the wonderful Garry Winogrand exhibit.

During the “wandering” part of my visit I went to this catwalk and thought about how I could photograph it. It is almost embarrassing to photograph in this spot, since it is one of the most obvious iconic places to grab an iPhone shot, and many other visitors were doing just that. I first made a few symmetrical photographs looking up at the skylight in a more direct way and then thought that I’d try a few “off kilter” shots, perhaps with the Winogrand images – which often tilt and twist in surprising ways – still in my mind. Having also just spent time in the museum’s wonderful exhibit of classic black and white work by other photographers, I was in a bit of a black and white state of mind, and I was pretty certain that this would end up as a monochrome image.

(For those who wonder about such things, this photograph was made with the small Fujifilm X-E1 camera and the wonderful Fujifilm XF 14mm f/2.8 lens.)

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | 500px.com | LinkedIn | Email

Text, photographs, and other media are © Copyright G Dan Mitchell (or others when indicated) and are not in the public domain and may not be used on websites, blogs, or in other media without advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.