Tag Archives: stairs

Photographs: Architecture, Photographs: France, Photographs: Structures and Objects, Photographs: Travel

Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou

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Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou
Outside stairs at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

Stairs, Le Centre Pompidou. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Outside stairs at Le Centre Pompidou, Paris

We had previously walked past the Pompidou Center museum but had not stopped, instead visiting other museums on our list. The structure is famous (or infamous, depending on your aesthetics) for its unusual architecture, which exposes lots of things that would usually be hidden beneath the skin of a more traditional building — ventilation ducts, stairs, escalators, structural reinforcements, and more. While the art inside the building was fascinating, the photographer in me was attracted to the structure itself.

I made this photograph from the ground level before we went inside. The simple “x” shape is superimposed on some of those exposed structural details, in this case a bunch of outside stairways. The color scheme of the building in this area is almost purely monochromatic — at first I thought I was looking at a black and white image, until I noticed a bit of yellow color along a margin. Since it was already monochromatic I decided to eliminate even that bit of color and go with a black and white rendition.

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

Blue Stairway

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Blue Stairway
A blue stairway in a softly lit alcove

Blue Stairway. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A blue stairway in a softly lit alcove

In contrast to much of what I have recently shared, this photograph is not a landscape. Or perhaps it is. OK, it is. I think of photographs like this, at least to some extent, as being “urban landscapes.” In many ways (but not all) I see them in ways that are similar to how I see landscape. I’m looking for form and composition, color, effects of light, some sense of the feeling of the place, and often a quality of stillness. I also think that these photographs, like some of my personal favorite landscape photographs, attempt to look at a familiar place in an unfamiliar way. For example, there is almost nothing in this photograph to tell you that it was made in San Francisco, not far at all from some rather iconic views.

Despite the similarities to my landscape photography, there are also some obvious differences. The distinctly non-natural subject is one obvious clue. Perhaps less obvious is that these photographs are not made in the usual natural landscape manner, relying on tripods, remote releases, and sometimes plenty of time to think and consider. Instead, these are virtually always shot handheld with a small camera. I’m generally on the move when I photograph these subjects, typically pausing only long enough to frame and trip the shutter, and then I continue along. In fact, I barely broke my stride as I passed this scene and made this photograph.

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: Urban/Street

Steps, Red Door In Sun

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Steps, Red Door In Sun
Manhattan residence building with steps and a sunlit red door

Steps, Red Door In Sun. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Manhattan residence building with steps and a sunlit red door

It is hard to resist a red door in morning sunlight. :-) The photograph comes from 2014, on one of our frequent visits to New York City to visit family, eat a lot of food, and do street photography. When in New York (and sometimes other boroughs including Brooklyn and Queens) we walk a lot. We’ve been known to walk into Manhattan from Brooklyn, or walk all the way up from the lower end of Manhattan to and into Central Park.

While I don’t recall the specifics of this photograph (though I think I have a general sense of where we were) I know we were out for one of those walks. I’m also pretty certain that this was more or less a quick shot as we walked past this little residential area. The reason this photograph show up now is one of those serendipitous stories. A week or two ago someone asked me a slightly technical photography question. I thought that I might be able to illustrate an answer by using an urban photograph made with a somewhat wide-angle lens, so I began to wade back into older New York photographs to see what I could find. In the end I never used any of them to respond to the question, but I did find a set of four-year-old raw files that I must have neglected to consider at the time.

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

Flag Makers

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Flag Makers
A complex landscape of steps, columns, braces, windows, reflections, and buildings

Flag Makers. San Francisco, California. January 3, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

A complex landscape of steps, columns, braces, windows, reflections, and buildings

I made this photograph near the new, lower level entrance to the remodeled San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) during a visit around the start of the new year. The old entrance to the museum has now been augmented by a new entrance that leads into the newly added wing. A large installation fills the space on the very lowest level, and large windows open from there to the surrounding buildings and a stairway leading to the entrance one floor higher.

I love photographing in museums — for the architectural spaces and the people — and I photograph inside and around MOMA every time I visit. Some subjects are immediately obvious but other take a bit longer to figure out. This open area on the lower level is, for me, in the latter category. It immediately felt like a place to make photographs, but it has taken quite a few visits to begin to reveal its potential. This photograph is more or less a study of the many layers and angles found within and outside of this space, including layers of time between the very new museum and the very old brick wall just beyond the stairs.

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.
Blog | About | Flickr | Twitter | Facebook | Google+ | LinkedIn | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.