The final image that I settle on is the result of a dialog between the picture that is captured on camera and the mood I am in when I work with it. My attitude has shifted somewhat from a bias toward "realism" to the idea that the raw image (pun intended) is just a starting point, a means to an end, a canvas upon which to project my inner turmoil. Or joy. Or whatever I happen to be feeling.
As I was working with the Columbus Circle images, and to an extent the brickwork shot, I felt driven to darker and darker places. When I got the images to a point that I liked, I realized there was a certain familiarity to the mood, the term that popped into my mind was gothic, maybe expressionism, I'm not an expert in art history terminology, but I stumbled upon this 1950s film called Night of the Hunter where there are certainly some scenes that I think express something similar to what I was feeling, just translated to an urban setting....
I think that the photographers mood always is visual in a photo. ( Okay excluded is some commercial work but even why a photographer has been chosen has to do with his mind) but darker and lighter are visible and so is also the influence of the weather. It reminds me a bit of the stone that predicts the weather. Is it wet its raining. Is it cold its cold is it warm the sun is shining and so on. Now I am waiting for some color ones.
ReplyDeleteI have always felt that these big black (or dark) mirrored buildings lend themselves to a kind of dominace and hidden power... a malevolence of foreboding.. alomst menacing. They obviously hide the corporate business and are a barrier to the inside goings on.
ReplyDeleteYour particular mood will affect (subconiously) the subjects of your photography. You have spotted that fact from your own output.
Night of the hunter is also considered a great 'film noir', which once again ties in with the whole dark theme.
Corporate power is certainly becoming more and more menacing, with the citizens united case over here giving them unlimited power to buy elections and sway public opinion on a variety of issues...and they are in bed with the fundamentalist christian loonies - mad world.
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