This is not yet a statement of fact, I need to run it by my tutor first, but I think I have a way of looking at the final assignment that would provide a development opportunity for me and also something I find interesting. The brief suggests photographing a place full of human activity and taking an objective somewhat distanced view on the subject. The comment is also made that it should be rich in human activity and that I might incorporate the environment in my work.
My concept is to undertake a photographic study of a street in Germany, in fact a single block of a street. By confining myself to a narrow space I am permitting a deeper look at what is there, I want this to be more than a superficial study, I want to investigate who lives and works there, what is it about this place. I plan to use my camera to investigate the modern Germany, to help me to better understand my local environment. The street in question is a stretch of Richard-Strauss Strasse, between Muhlbaur and Lizst. This used to be Munich's ring road, a congested 6 lane highway, now a leafy urban street undergoing progressive modernisation. The ring road runs beneath the street now.
I plan a candid look, discreet street photography coupled with some work that might be more in the landscape genre, but is I think an important record of the street:
This is the street looking South, the width is a relic of the old highway, the building work part of the renewal that is being undertaken now the congestion has gone.
This concept sprang out of an interest in repeating the street photographs of Sunset Boulevard of Ed Ruscha. I saw this in book form in a museum gallery a year or so ago and it captured my imagination. Not only was his photo strip a fabulous work of art it was an insanely valuable record of how somewhere once looked. I wanted to apply this to the newly refurbished Richard-Strauss Strasse to record this definition of modern Germany in street form. Place is very important in my work and this was a way of making a definitive record of a place.
It also served as a way to investigate the patterns formed by buildings, not noticed as we walk along the street until we step back and realize that there is more form present than we thought. To that end, I carefully photographed each side of the street, endeavoring always to shoot from the same distance from the buildings (cycle path helped) and to maintain a parallel framing. I was not worried about overlap and had no plan to make perfect joins, in fact I want the individual pictures to still have some presence (perspective ensures that anyway). Once completed I found I had 24 frames making up each side of the street. Careful alignment and some perspective adjustment in Lightroom did the rest.
This is the West side of the street
These two photos would be part of the submission, they would act to bookend the remaining images. Personally I view the two composites as stronger statements of Social Documentary than anything else I could make. They are in the genre of landscapes, perhaps even lending themselves a little to the geometry of the Bechers, but within them is contained a wealth of information about how a German street really is, an objective study of the space ordinary people inhabit. Of course, it is not really objective, I chose it, but it is as close as I can get.
Added to that I would then investigate the street in detail capturing moments or activities that make up the social fabric. Just by way of example
This will also be a return to colour, my preferred medium, although not for most of this course.
This is a study that I think I can engage with, that I can buy into emotionally as well as creatively. I think I can make it work and even if I can't it will be a useful developmental journey for me. The open question is am I stretching the definition of the assignment too far - I kind of hope so, as that is what I want to do, but not so far that it is rejected.
This series certainly works for me. It could have seemed lifeless in a Becher- like way but there is passion in your description and the people and colour add vibrancy to make the street come alive.
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