Assignment 4

A Sense of Place

This assignment draws together much of what has been explored in the course. The assignment is to show the character of a place with a much visual variety as possible. We are set the task to produce a dozen images of a place and select about half of these to use for a thoughtful pieces in a travel publication.

I took took opportunity of a trip to New York to do this assignment. It may seem strange to choose a city as large and diverse as New York for a subject, so I decided to focus on some images of the character of New York but contrast with some images that are less stereotypical.

Images of the character of New York

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f4, 1/60, ISO 800 focal length 45mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens; f3.8, 1/60, ISO 1600 focal length 14mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens; f3.5, 1/60, ISO 400 focal length 10mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f5.6, 1/60, ISO 200 focal length 24mm

The first image is a grab shot taken in a mall in the Rockefeller Center. I spotted that the four customers were all disengaged with their shoe shiners, all sharing a rather contemptuous air about them as if their footwear is being cleaned by a machine rather than a fellow human being. I just turned and clicked; the moment would otherwise have been lost.

The image does say much about the relationship of the shoe shiner and his customer; it symbolizes the fact that they live and work in different worlds, coming together only briefly for this basic service.

The second image is also a grab shot, this time on the subway. I have endeavoured in this image to show again the transitory nature of human contact: the girl clutching her shopping while catching up on cellphone messages next to the slumbering passenger completely unaware of his surroundings and possibly even past his destination.

Diners are a quintessential feature of the American urban landscape, and probably more concentrated in New York than anywhere else. This wide angle image captures the coffee, the furnishings and, in the distance, the only other customers. The pamphlet was a non deliberate prop in the image, but adds to the scene, asking questions of the viewer as to the significance of the title (it was actually taken at the heart of the 19th century tenement area near Brooklyn Bridge).

New York is Democrat territory and the fourth image captures that in a perfect moment as CNN flashes up that Obama is predicted to win the 2012 presidential election, having just won the key state of Ohio. The timing of our arrival at Times Square could have been no more propitious, the joyous reaction of those close to the camera reflecting the general feeling in the crowd. The live TV feed gives the sense that the photographer is himself somewhere in the live picture.

Images of a lesser known New York

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f4.5, 1/60, ISO 200 focal length 24mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f4.5, 1/125, ISO 200 focal length 80mm

The Metropolitan Museum of Art - the Cloisters is situated in northern Manhattan. It is an oasis in one of the busiest urban environments in the world. The exhibits are exclusively Mediaeval European Art and Sculpture but perhaps the more striking feature is the quiet ambience of the cloisters area, where folk come to sit quietly meditating in the exquisite surroundings. There is nowhere quite like it elsewhere in the city, providing a calm peaceful environment in the metropolis.

The High Line is a fairly recently added urban park in West Manhattan. Although owned by the city, it was founded by local residents from the community from the ruins of a disused freight railway. The walkway is a mile in length, leading from nowhere in particular to nowhere in particular, the idea being to take a stroll enjoying the carefully planted borders with the skyscrapers as background. It has been hugely successful not only as a leisure resource but also as a key to regenerating the surrounding area.

So those are the six images I have selected for the article as being images that best describe the appreciation of the what spaces and buildings mean for the people who live and/or work in New York. The assignment suggests that there might be about twice that number from which these are selected, so I set out below the images that were considered but not used:

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f11, 1/350, ISO 200 focal length 45mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens; f16, 1/60, ISO 1600 focal length 22mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f4, 1/60, ISO 400 focal length 24mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF-S10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM lens; f22, 1/60, ISO 200 focal length 11mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f22, 1/60, ISO 200 focal length 65mm

Canon EOS 450D with EF24-105mm f/4L IS USM lens; f22, 1/60, ISO 800 focal length 92mm

The first image shows two handwritten signs: one a direct polemic, the other indicating useful information. I like the idea of the contrasting messages being set out using the same medium side by side; there is sense of irony in the mismatch. Technically, the light works well. But it is perhaps too subtle and too immediate for the purposes of a travel publication. The exercise asks for how I might approached the assignment had I been taking images with no specific end purpose in mind; I can say this image would then have been included, as I would have included a more challenging set of images for the viewer to interpret.

This is true also for the second image, taken in the Museum of the Moving Image. This is a good example of the making figures unrecognisable exercise earlier on this Chapter; here the woman is silhouetted in an otherwise white environment (deliberately including some of the snow outside the window). I particularly like this image, having applied a slightly softened finish in post processing but is it a travel publication image? Probably not in my view.

The third image is of Chelsea Market. This is a popular place for retail therapy as the image shows, but it is more of a record shot than a publication shot.

It is tempting to include one or more iconic buildings, if only to help the viewer feel associated with a structure that he or she has seen before. The Flat Iron building is such an icon. Technically, the shot was challenging due to need to shoot contra jour at the time we were there. Perhaps more importantly, I am not sure the image says much about the character of New York; it is not a thought provoking image.

The woman hanging out her washing on the tenement balcony is another example of the unrecognisable figure theme mentioned above. This is a pattern image, deliberately so as to emphasis the regularity of the tenement windows over a large area, but the figure adds some context. Perhaps a little uninteresting for a travel publication.

Chinatown is a prominent area in Lower Manhattan; this image simply reflects the urban character of the place with its busy and prominent signs. Again, a record shot rather than one reflecting the people as well as the place.

Conclusion

I have endeavoured in this assignment to follow the brief; thus, for example, including a variety of subject matter. Some of the images focus more on the people (the first one, for example) some more on the place (notably the diner image) but in all have tried to use subject matter that indicates an interaction of people and place. In that respect, I used images that were good subject matter; there were others that might be viewed as better technically but I was conscious of the narrative nature of the assignment and the consequent need for images that were more than just good record shots.

I found the assignment challenging and enjoyable. As with the previous assignment, it developed as I was on site, in particular the idea of contrasting stereotypical New York with images of the lesser known side of the city.

Had I had a freer brief, I would certainly have included some more challenging images as mentioned above, and would also have used a few more. Six provides only a taster. It could be argued that New York is too big a subject for this assignment but I would argue that sometimes you do have to encapsulate a large subject in a small article and this provided an opportunity to do that.