If you build it, they will come. This applies more to photographers than it does to those supernatural baseball players from “Field Of Dreams”. There is something about great architecture that gets us photo people grabbing our rigs and running out the door faster than you can say ”this round is on me”. As a matter of fact, the architecture doesn’t even need to be great. We seem to get even more ramped up the worse it gets. Abandoned? Yep. Falling apart? Hell yes. Looks like it is from some dark and dystopian sci-fi film? OMG, you are texting every other shooter you know to come along.
Architecture, in my not so humble opinion, is absolutely near the top of the list when it comes to maximum photographic opportunities. In addition, the other plus is it doesn’t talk back to you like a lot of other “subjects” do (sorry about that, my inner Kubrick snuck out here for a moment…)
Buildings, walls, tunnels, parking garages, you name it, some photog is there right now and will probably still be there hours from now. And doors? In the words of Donnie Brasco, fugget about it. For whatever intangible reason, there seems to be some common fascination with taking shots of many different doors and assembling them in an arranged collage to hang on your wall. Most typically next to your, yep you guessed it, your own.
Needless to say, architecture is an endless and reliable resource for creative photographic ideas on those unfortunate days when you are suffering from the dreaded shooter’s block. Maybe best of all, it is always as close as the other side of your own front door. Just don’t forget to take a photo of it on your way out.
Top photo taken in ye old downtown, Oakville, Ontario.
Middle photo shot in marvellous Mykonos, Greece.
Bottom photo from what was left of the abandoned Kodak Heights, North York, Ontario..
