Another way of looking

Our photographer explores one of the changes brought about by the virus.

Of all our consultants, the one whose habits have changed most is our photographer.  He is old enough to be in the higher-risk category, and he tends to be naturally careful.  So he has not made any visits to the artists at the Torpedo Factory since early March; he had been in the habit of going there at least monthly.  Neither has he had any film processed over the same period of time, since his favored processing lab requires a long trip on public transportation.  Indeed, he has taken only three rolls so far in all of 2020, when normally he’d have fifteen or twenty by this time, not counting special projects.

He realizes that he had mostly found inspiration, and subjects, while walking around the city and studying the fall of light on different buildings and objects.  With trips curtailed, the number of pictures taken has naturally fallen off.

In place of a variety of scenes, he has found himself looking at a few familiar ones under a variety of conditions.  For instance the mundane windowsill, with two Tai Chi figurines and two empty vases, can take on a surprisingly varied and subtle range of lighting effects and colors.

We’ve noted before that the same object can look very different depending on the lighting, something that perhaps not all photographers grasp completely; and that what you see depends on what you’re looking for, even under identical conditions.  Here we have an example of both, as our photographer explores the possibilities of a very small number of scenes.  He has even begun to study works on still-life painting and ponder the effects of sunlight falling through leaves onto a teacup.

We’re inclined to think that this same sort of thing is widespread nowadays.  Not just with photographers, but in all sorts of activities, people are being forced (or strongly encouraged) to concentrate on a smaller number of examples.  Expeditions to far places have been replaced by more restricted trips, and more often people are seeing and doing the same things under different conditions.

Is this a positive development?  As always, it depends on what you do with it.  Our photographer could just have set aside his cameras for the duration.  And there’s no guarantee that he’ll produce anything, much less something worth all his study and effort.  It’s an opportunity.  What will you make of it?