Tag Archives: scrim

Through the Scrim

Through the Scrim
An urban scene viewed through a scrim

Through the Scrim. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

An urban scene viewed through a scrim

This is intended to be a sort of playful photograph, though I think it might be read as having a bit of an ominous quality, too, depending upon how you look at it.

I made the photograph from inside the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). We are members of the museum and we go there regularly — partly to see the collection and the temporary exhibits, and partly to photograph the architecture, the people, and the urban environment surrounding the building. I made the photograph through a sort of scrim that was covering some windows, presumably to mute the outside light a bit. It was rainy, and a bit of water is running on the fabric of the scrim, and the overall effect is to mute contrast and detail in the urban scene outside the window.


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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” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Scrim, Bars, Shadows

Scrim, Bars, Shadows
Winter tree branches cast soft shadows on scrim window covering

Scrim, Bars, Shadows. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Winter tree branches cast soft shadows on scrim window covering

I was tempted to write little or nothing about this photograph and just let it stand as is. But that would break with my tradition of posting something about every photograph! (Apologies to those of you who aren’t fans of the writing! ;-) The subject is the conjunction of a shadow and the bars of a window.

The photograph illustrates, perhaps, the usefulness of bringing a camera along even in situations where photography isn’t your main goal. We were in New York for a week in late December, and on this freezing cold winter day we did what so many do on such days — we headed for the warmth of a museum, in this case the Metropolitan Museum. Our primary goal was to see the large David Hockney show, but there were other things to see as well. At one point, while considering what to do next, we ended up in a familiar gallery off in the distant reaches of this large and confusing museum. At one end of the room was a stairwell. Southwest facing windows were covered with a sort of scrim that muted the direct light, and winter-bare tree branches cast shadows on 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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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Through the Scrim

Through the Scrim
Benches and a balcony, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Through the Scrim. San Francisco, California. May 6, 2016. © Copyright 2016 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Benches and a balcony, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

There is a small thread in my photograph of the interior spaces of buildings that looks through gauzy, diffused curtains, blinds, and scrims toward the world outside. For example, I have several in his line that I made at the Getty Museum in Southern California, and some things photographed in museums in New York that go in a similar direction. I made this photograph at the new SFMOMA museum in San Francisco during a members’ preview before the official opening last week.

I love the newly expanded and remodeled museum. One writer commented on the way that the new facility opens to the City. (The former building, as good as it was, was mostly closed off from San Francisco, with few places where the interior space opened to views of the surrounding area.) Now the new “back side” of the museum opens straight out over and into the urban environment, and there is quite a bit to see there — and the design creates a stronger link to this city. In this photograph, which was initially “about” the lines of the buildings in the upper part of the frame, the shapes and tones of the two foreground benches are beginning to interest me more.


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.