Walk the line

I love lines. They're strong parts of architecture, urban landscapes, industrial facades, shadows, pretty much everything I like to photograph. That's why I thought this would be an easy theme. But it's the same reason it turned out to be somewhat difficult. I've already photographed a LOT of lines for this theme project. I would come across some great subject matter, but then realize I had a similar picture already up on Instagram. Part of this year-long challenge is to produce new work, so I tried not to repeat myself too much.

Still, I enjoyed working on this theme a lot. I originally thought of it for two reasons. The first is Instagram itself. They host a weekly themed challenge, called the Weekend Hashtag Project. I don't ever really participate in them because I keep myself focused on my own chosen themes and save my Instagram feed for just those photos. A recent Hashtag Project was all about lines, specifically ones that lead to a corner of the photo frame. I saw some really great work and was inspired to post my own photos, even if a few weeks later.

My second reason is that I love the work of Charles Sheeler. He's been one of my favorite photographers ever since I became aware of him through photo class in high school. He took great industrial and urban photographs in the 1920s and 30s, before such subject matter was really accepted as art, and strong lines are the foundation of his compositions. One of the photos I took early on for this theme is something of a modern echo of his great photo titled "Criss-Crossed Conveyors," pictured left. I didn't notice the resemblance until I decided to make my image grayscale. I guess his influence is stronger than I thought.

Right up my alley

This theme began after I came across some photos from a fashion studio lighting course I took at NESOP a few years ago. The class was a lot of fun for me, getting the chance to feel what it's like to be on a fashion shoot. It was also a helpful primer in studio lighting and flash, something I hadn't spent much time on in photojournalism. Though one of the best sessions was when we spent the night outside the studio in the surrounding area around Kenmore Square. I found this great spray painted alley as a backdrop, and it's one of my favorite photos from the course.

With that in mind, I thought I'd go in pursuit of more interesting alleys in Boston. There are so many types: garden-like alleys in the South End, industrial ones that run along the T tracks, narrow alleys that snake through the old colonial buildings. It's my kind of subject matter too. I loved walking the streets of the city, eagerly turning down empty alleys. I must have been a strange sight to others, dressed up from work and photographing puddles in alleys. All in the name of photography!

Souvenirs of summer

This theme was way out of my comfort zone. I wanted to do something about summer, especially since I was going into a week with a few days off from work for a staycation, and would be doing a lot of very summer-specific activities. I didn't think just taking photos of summer events would be visually consistent, so I decided on still lifes. A lot of Instagram posts are the very popular shot-from-above photo of food or flowers, so I thought it would be a good aesthetic to try out. There's even a popular hashtag for it, #stillography.

But still lifes are not really my thing. All of my schooling in photojournalism was about not setting up the shot and trying instead to capture the moment as it happened. Creating the images really relied more on my limited background in graphic design than photography. I also found things looked a lot better in my head! A few times, I had a great idea in mind, but when I set it up and shot it, it didn't look as good as I expected. That's totally different from my regular process, where I stop to photograph something because I see it in front of me and it looks interesting and worth documenting.

Still, it was fun to put some of these shots together, and there were more variables under my control. The whole set would have looked better if they were all true still lifes of stationary objects, but the exceptions (the ice cream cone and string of lights) were too summery to pass up.

Typecast

This theme was inspired by other feeds I had seen on Instagram that focus on type and signage. I wanted to depict interesting typography, fonts and uses of words in the urban landscape. I always loved graphic design in school and companies and advertising use a lot more visually bold text lately. But I tried to focus on unique, found text rather than all the more official signs and words around us on a daily basis.

There was such a variety of options that I found a different problem than when I don't find enough subjects. I took a lot more photos than what I posted, and deliberated more about which ones to use. I felt they weren't looking as cohesive of a group as some of my past themes. Most of them seem to stand better on their own. I think if I had focused on just letters, or just signs, they might have matched more. I also originally included the picture to the right, but replaced it below with another more focused on type. This one was me falling back into my natural style and editing, rather than sticking to the theme!

Orange is the new...

I honestly didn't have the Netflix show in mind when I picked orange for the next theme. I wanted to do another color week, and orange seemed like a good choice for the start of summer. Orange isn't as prevalent as some of the other colors I've done, unless I just focused on construction and warning signs. So it forced me to look for subjects in new places a bit, including posting the first portrait and sunset so far in this project. Portraits, I should do more of, but I try to steer clear of sunsets and flowers. It's just too easy (and pretty).

But as always, opportunities present themselves. Walking home from work, I spotted the orange garland flags draped across the front of a brownstone. There were no birthday signs or other decorations, so I don't know what they were for, but how random to use orange. It must be good photo karma!