Retrospective. II.

Regarding interest.

Life, for most people, is an endless set of experiences and encounters. These tend to impact everything we are; from how we dress to how we see people, the world and situations.

The work of Alfred Stieglitz is definitely relatable ,retrospectively, to my photography.

His technique was ever evolving whilst he was essentially interested in proving that photography was just as viable a form of art as painting or sculpting. The way Stieglitz composed images in his early examples was very scenic yet, as I see it, street photography.

Alfred Stieglitz: Two Towers, New York, 1911

In this example Stieglitz has taken a street photo consisting of the buildings in the background, branches and railings in focus at the front and people mid focus in between. I can relate to why this was done to achieve a certain effect. I see this effect as giving higher importance to the buildings whilst lessening the importance of the people in the scene, all to focus on the snow covered plant life and railings at the foreground.

Composure has everything to do with context, as I have referenced previously using Arthur Fellig as an example. Simply stepping back and capturing more than your main subject can and does change the context of any photograph and is the most vital aspect of (street) photography.

James L. Velli, 2017

In this image I have used a similar perspective to deliver my context. The unclean and unkept street light in the foreground of this image is in focus whilst the brightly lit Tower in the back of the image is out of focus and the streets in between are murky and semi focused.

This produces my desired effect of demoralizing the brightly lit touristic monument and bringing to light the uncleanliness and unimportance of its surroundings.

References;

https://www.metmuseum.org

https://photogravure.com