Several years ago my friend Lilly called me “askew.” Lilly’s a nice lady. I didn’t take offense. For a time I actually got a kick out of someone considering my photographic style unpredictably askew.
If anything, many of my photographs have only become more askew, particularly when I’m photographing residences. I’ll still take a very traditional head-on shot sometimes. The residences I showed in Providence, Rhode Island, recently were all pretty much head-on shots.
But the truth is this: these kinds of pictures easily become one-shot wonders. They’re so very symmetrical. You look at them. You have a moment, maybe another. But that’s it. The symmetry might be an accurate depiction of them. But your mind has seen a lot of symmetry and, frankly, it tends to become bored with it pretty quickly.
So whenever I can, I try to supplement the symmetrical pictures with something a little more….yes, askew. I think they’re really much more interesting this way, in the same way I was talking about the Taj Mahal the other day. So much so that during my morning walks through Edgartown the week before last it was almost as if I couldn’t take a symmetrical head-on shot to save my life.
33 Cottage Street, 2010
Fuller Street, 2010
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I am so glad I came across your blog.. your photographs are stunning, I am looking forward to delving into more of them.
ReplyDeleteI've always been drawn to the Cottage St house, something about it intrigues me.
Besides my MV Obsession blog I have one where I post my pictures of the world as I see it.
http://throughjerseyeyes.wordpress.com/
Love the shadows on that place, second photo down. And I think your photos of buildings are always great!
ReplyDeleteHmmm, a nice defense for my habit of forgetting all about those 9 little squares in the viewfinder when I get excited about a shot "I meant to do it that way!"
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