11-JUN-2007
Rotunda, Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, 2007
The administration building of 1939's Golden Gate Exposition still stands. It later served as part of a Naval Base, which closed in 1993. I wanted to express the vast scale of the room, so waited until my friend and fellow pbase photographer Tim May wandered into an illuminated alcove leading to a stair well. Tim was not posing for me – he did not even know that I was making this image. He is small, and the room is vast, creating a strong sense of scale incongruity. There is also a bold contrast between the brightly illuminated alcove and the dark rotunda, which is lined with military murals from its days as a naval base. Because I used my spot meter to expose for the highlights around Tim, the rest of the scene gets darker and richer.
06-JUN-2007
Statue and building, Union Square, San Francisco, California, 2007
The statue, mounted on top of a column, commemorates the victory of the American Navy at the battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish American War. It stands in the middle of Union Square, one of San Francisco's main retail and culture centers -- a spacious meeting spot in the heart of the city. The statue’s Victorian elegance contrasts strongly to the modern architecture of the apartment building, which rises over the square from several blocks away. My 420mm telephoto lens collapses distance, and incongruously brings both statue and building together in space, even they stand several city blocks apart. I took a camera position a city block away from Union square, and focused on the statue. My small aperture of f/8.0 offers enough depth of focus to make both the statue and the building appear sharp.
22-FEB-2007
General Store, Rhyolite, Nevada, 2007
Rhyolite is a ghost town just across the Nevada state line from Death Valley National Park. One of the many stores that served the 10,000 gold and silver miners who worked the mines in this area during the early years of the 20th Century still stands behind its homemade sign. It is now little more than an empty shell, just like the false front that tries to make it look more impressive than it really is. The building is now for up for sale, and stands forlorn in the early morning light. I interpret this building’s uncertain future by underexposing it, allowing the sign to glow and the building itself to recede into darkness.
13-DEC-2006
Detail, Hassan II Mosque, Casablanca, Morocco, 2006
The second largest mosque in the world, this building fascinates the eye and stimulates the imagination. Rather than show the mosque itself, this image teases the viewer with detail as illusion. It is a puzzle, rather than a description, asking viewers to create their own vision of the mosque itself. These details represent the exotic nature of the place itself, rather than describing its appearance, size, function, or location.
11-DEC-2006
Ramparts at dawn, Essaouira, Morocco, 2006
The old walled Moroccan city of Essaouira still retains its 18th century character. Orson Welles filmed "Othello" on these walls in 1949. In this case, I wanted to put a group of buildings into a context that gives it a sense of place. The hint of blue fishing boats filling the foreground layer of the image does just that. The pastel colors of dawn define both ramparts and buildings in an atmospheric manner.
22-DEC-2006
Amerhidil kasbah, Skoura, Morocco, 2006
This 15th Century kasbah -- which means a fortified palace - is secluded in a palm grove near Skoura. The most beautiful kasbahs in Southern Morocco are here, and this is considered to be the most imposing of them all. I abstract the building by zooming in on it. Rather than showing the entire series of towers and façades, such as we might see on a post card, I choose to show only a series of windows, part of one tower, and the intricate embellishments that best define these ancient adobe kasbahs. In doing this, I stress the characteristics that best define the character of the building. The warmth of the strong evening light is a bonus.
24-SEP-2006
Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
I tell the story of the Mormon’s Temple Square by merging the spires of two of its most distinctive structures, the 1882 Assembly Hall in the foreground, and the famous 1893 Salt Lake Temple in the background. I made this image from a few blocks away with a lens focal length of about 180mm, taking great care to position the spires in the frame without overlapping any of them.
24-SEP-2006
Entrance, Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
The Salt Lake Temple is the largest and best-known temple of the Mormon faith. It is considered sacred, and can only be entered by members. Dedicated in 1893, it is the centerpiece of the10 acre Temple Square in the middle of downtown Salt Lake City. I made several images of this church, including this photograph of one of its entrances just after dawn. Its massively simple stone portal is splashed with gold and nobody has yet come to rest on the lone bench placed next to it in the shadows.
24-SEP-2006
Heralding the dawn, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2006
The Salt Lake Temple, which took 40 years to build, and has walls nine feet thick at the base and six feet thick at the top, is the first Mormon temple to feature a standing angel Moroni statue. The gilded statue stands on a huge ball at the very top of the building’s central tower. It sounds a trumpet, which in this case heralds the coming of dawn that strikes the pinnacles of the temple. By showing only part of the temple, I invite the viewer to use his or her imagination to picture the rest of it.
08-AUG-2006
Empire State Building, New York City, 2006
The most expressive way of photographing a building is to put it into some kind of context that conveys an idea. The Empire State Building, one of the tallest structures on earth, and ranked high among New York’s iconic sights, is often pictured by itself. I wanted relate it to its neighbors along 34th street, giving it roots –a sense of place. It was early in the morning, and the rising sun was still low in the sky, bathing its eastern façade in light. The low angle of light also creates massive shadows that fill more than half the frame, and contrast strongly to the delicate spire of the Empire State Building. Even though the surrounding buildings dwarf my subject, the iconic building still dominates the image because it is the only structure surrounded by sky. It stands alone against a rich blue sky, washed in dissolving horizontal jet contrails that link it to its neighbors.
08-AUG-2006
The Flatiron Building, New York City, 2006
I have always been moved by that image – its prow moves through its snow swept setting like a ship adrift in a winter storm. It was a challenge for me to photograph the same structure 103 years later without any hint of Stieglitz in it. To do so, I decided to use this famous building as context rather than subject matter. I use as my base layer, the abstracted statue of Lincoln’s Secretary of State William H. Seward in Madison Square Park just across the street from the Flatiron Building. It was late in the day, and the low sun outlined Seward’s body with rim lighting as I shot his statue from behind. I use Burnham’s famous façade as my backdrop, filling my frame with its windows, many of them reflecting the deep blue sky and the surrounding buildings. Floor after floor flows through the image as a series of rhythmic diagonals, including one near the top created by a slash of sunlight. We never see the famous prow that gives the Flatiron its distinctive shape. My goal was not to describe the Flatiron Building, but rather to embrace a historical figure with a historical backdrop.
08-AUG-2006
The Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 2006
It was a daunting challenge to make a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the most famous structures in the world, in a way that I had not seen before. The idea came to me as I looked up at its signature gothic arches from a vantage point along the East River shore. Most images of this bridge, which opened in 1883 as the largest suspension bridge in the world, feature those double arches because they give it its unique identity. I decided to abstract the bridge by eliminating its famous arches and feature instead its elegant web of supporting cables. To do this, I changed my vantage point, climbing to an observation deck placed at right angles to the bridge at the nearby South Street Seaport. This position offers a side view of one of the two towers that supports the bridge. The arches vanish, and the cables take precedence. The flag echoes the diagonal slope of the cable supports, and the tiny figures on the bridge add scale incongruity. I waited for the cumulus clouds in the background to arrange themselves so that there was a salutatory puff on either side of the tower.