burnt embers

My latest roll of film from the Olympus Pen half frame camera could be considered a disaster but I prefer a wonderful accident. Such as the shot above, which is an in-camera montage of View Towers seen from Fort Street, from within a passage way that leads to Meares Street, and a shot or two within the passage without View Towers at all. Both portrait and landscape formats are involved, and a fliptych or two in landscape mode as well. Below is one of the diptychs I was shooting (with a sliver of the above image on one side as well).

I had meant to try a shot of this side of the building for some time – you will see from the link in the previous paragraph that I have stuck with the ends of this building, or closeup views. I have been a bit daunted by how much of a slab, a cliff face, this building is from the north and south, and it is hard to fit in the frame of all but the wider angle lenses, so I have never got a good shot from this side. You can see what it looks like from the north in this link, a local photography blog which I only just discovered and which is well worth a good look through.

Seeing Gary’s shot inspired me to try something from Fort Street where I used to stand for the bus most days staring at this edifice. I thought I would do it in a half-frame multitych format. However, I think the above shot is better than what I might have accomplished in that style. I think the jumbled overlays represents this large block of flats and the lives lived within quite well, and in a way that I would never have thought of. Which makes it food for thought, and a seed for experimentation. I like it that the view from across the street is embedded, and the relatively affluent existence of the lawyers offices, pricey restaurants and yoga studios stand out around the edges of this low rent and locally rather notorious accommodation.

While on the subject of windows, this morning I was reading an interesting post by one of my followers and occasional commenter on these pages Angelina Hue. Her post, Facing Windows: Voyeurism or Art, delves into the sometimes extremely fine line between voyeurism and art when photographing buildings and what people are doing as seen through the building windows. She provides some thought-provoking links on the subject and it is worthwhile spending some time browsing her listed sources. Those thoughts go well with this post, or at least with the photos I intended to take and post. One of the interesting things to do while waiting for a bus at this spot, at the end of the day, is to watch the lights come on as people arrive home from work. To see the things they do at their windows or on their balconies and how that changes when, for instance, there is a glorious sunrise to look at. From the vantage point of the bus stop it does not seem like voyeurism, but it does feel a bit nosy. Seeing this monolith come alive as people come home is interesting, and in many ways it is just a vertical part of the street scene with people going about their lives. Is it nosy or voyeuristic to stand at a bus stop and watch people walking or interacting on the sidewalk?

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