Ways of seeing, part 2.

Another shot from my roll of Iford HP5+. This image stood out to me, for two main reasons I think. By this stage I was used to the tonal range, so that wasn’t enough. Instead, it was:

• The contrast in light in the shot. There’s so much light at the top of the frame, and that moves through some transitional greys in the middle, down to inky black at the bottom of the frame. I like how that draws my eye down through the frame, which seems to accentuate (for me) the angle of the shot, from above. I like the texture on the tiles in the middle of the frame, and how that gives my eye something to keep busy with as it passes through that section of the shot. That then leads to the second thing that makes this image a “keeper” for me –
• The three people in the middle of the shot. Compositionally, they form something of a triangle. Even though I know (because I was there) that there wasn’t any connection between the three, my mind thinks otherwise – as a storytelling instrument, it fills in gaps. Are the three there to meet? Is the lady at the top of the triangle meeting up with a pen pal, for the first time ever? Is it a business transaction, to be carried out away from the watchful eyes of the other pedestrians at the top left of the frame? One person creates interest in a frame, and gives it a sense of scale. Two people suggest relationships. Three people suggest story…