Assignment 4 : final images for 'A Sense of Place'

Albert Road - a unique sense of place..

I've chosen these images to represent the curious mix of trading and activity and the  slightly 'bohemian and zany' feel that is Albert Road...

P981: F5.6 @ 1/800  35mm  ISO 200

P981 This view is very much  Albert Road – colourful shopfronts, street level art and 3D art higher up.The small figure draws the eye down to a business dealing in everyday repairs but promoting itself with a vibrant frontage not out of sync with its neighbours. It was taken from the sun terrace above a shop, courtesy of the owner who was rather surprised to be asked to allow me access to her  first floor terrace...a shot influenced by Gursky in that it looks down at a scene though admittedly not from a great height or as panoramic as some of Gursky's work.

Inside Chilli Tattoo
P979: F5.6 @1/30  24mm  ISO 800

P979 I discovered that of the Albert Road shop interiors are as interesting as their outside. This image is not a posed shot though it rather looks like one. I asked permission to take a few shots inside the Chilli Tattoo and these two soon lost interest in what I was doing. I wasn't close enough to hear the conversation - maybe they were discussing a tattoo design? 

 

P984: F8 @ 1/400  24mm  ISO 100

P984 Taken from the perspective of a passer-by looking around and up for directions .I thought this could be used as an introductory and scene setting image. It shows the obvious i.e. the road name but hints at unusual shops and a theatrical area. There are no people here ( where would they be at this angle ? ) but we see an example of using the outside of a building to intrigue and promote trade which is a very Albert Road approach to business.It offers a view of the area's character

Too many landscape pictures which may well not suit the layout of a portrait style publication but this image could be cropped  ( see P984a below). What it would lose in interest might be outweighed by its usefulness as a scene setting introductory image perhaps? Personally I prefer P984 and that is the image included within the final selection.

P984a

P978: F8 @ 1/25  18mm  ISO 100

P997: F5.6 @ 1/160 28mm  ISO 200

I chose P978 as it captures  a family feel showing a young lad rummaging around in a box of 'stuff' which many of us like to do and what Albert Road offers so well. It is in shadow, one of the challenges of focusing on a street that runs north to south but does show the range of stock ignored in favour of the mysterious box of stuff.

P997 This shop above is just so Albert Road in both style and presentation.I chose the image for that reason but also for the way the dress shop window offers a looking glass glimpse of what is behind the viewer - a potential customer checking out the window display.

P980: F5.6 @ 1/1250  24mm ISO 800

Albert Road has a wonderful 'cafe culture ' which makes the most of good weather..I think that the elderly lady here was rather bemused by being asked whether she would mind having her photo taken. Her companion, who may have been her carer, told me quite firmly that she was OK about it as I was a woman whereas had I been a man the answer would have been a colourful 'no'.
I chose this image (P980) for the final selection over other images of how Albert Road cafes use their limited space to create a 'cafe culture image' for its directness.Being on the pavement this kind of outdoor cafe area is more typical in the area than the small more secret courtyard I found behind one cafe (though that might attract a different kind of customer perhaps).

'Drumnation'

P977: F8 @ 1/200  18mm  ISO 100

P977 is cropped right in from a larger group picture. I had cropped the image slightly but then seeing an image taken by Ben Shahn reproduced in Geoff Dyer's work 'The Ongoing Moment (1), I went back to crop the image further. Shahn had taken at least three pictures of a blind accordionist, expanding and contracting the image like the actual instrument. Looking at the image that framed the accordionist tightly so that he dominated the picture, I decided to crop my image so my lead player with his back to us dominates, framed by the two other drummers; their audience partly reflected in the restaurant window.  

P976 : F8 @ 1/250  51mm  ISO 100

P976 Spotted these anonymous figures at the end of a long hot morning pounding up and down the road.They capture that feel of never quite knowing what to expect when walking down Albert Road perfectly.

(1) Ben Shahn  (1932-34) 'Untitled (14th St, New York City 1932-34'.(photograph) in  The Ongoing Moment Edinburgh:Dyer,Geoff,p.30