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May 05, 2005
Subway Photography
Patterns appeal to me, and patterns with little irregularities appeal to me even more, so I love subway stations. I always want to document the endlessly repeating iron-wrought gates (with their little embellishments from different eras) or tile designs that accommodate the shape of the tunnel or have been altered by water damage. Usually I'm too shy to whip out my camera -- and my photos usually suck when I do -- but the proposed banning of photography in the subway has given me a push.
So far my technical ignorance has been making things difficult. Things that look beautiful to my naked eye look completely different once they appear on my digital camera screen. The flourescent lighting gives everything a blue tinge that doesn't translate well. Killing the flash helps, but then I need a tripod if I want a non-blurry shot. Here's the best of the bunch so far.
Posted by csageday at May 5, 2005 12:24 AM
Comments
I like the picture - keep taking them. Some photographer (maybe William Eggleston) said that he photographs things to see how they will look when photographed...perhaps a banal observation but goes to the heart of the photo-as-mirror fallacy.
BTW there's a short (and rather sweet) interview with Jonathan Safran Foer in Mother Jones this month; he quotes Auden - "I look at what I write so I can see what I think".
Posted by: tony at May 5, 2005 12:56 PM