I am trying a few things out simultaneously at the moment.
I’m getting sentimental about leaving OTR because the big move to Athens is looming ahead of me. The gentrification process is changing the urban landscape so significantly that even when I leave for a month or two at a time it can be disorienting to return and not recognize my surroundings. So, I feel compelled to document something about the specific slice of time that I have had in this neighborhood.
(this is of a greater scope than point no 1) However/in addition to this I am also thinking about the visualization of urban landscapes, and more specifically the incorporation of ideas or images or decorative motifs derived from it into art. Through this documentation process I’m trying to put myself in the shoes of my vase painters a little bit and try and capture the details and snippets of things that I notice while out and about. I’ve been taking them randomly as I’ve navigated the neighborhood as a pedestrian going about my daily life rather than trying to do a gridded documentation of things I find interesting. I like the reiterative, re-imaginative process of just taking photos of what catches my attention.
All of the photos on this website were taken on my iPhone and have not been edited, with the exception of occasional cropping. What I’m trying to do is to simulate the view that catches my eye. This doesn’t always work out, for a few reasons. The broad, expansive shots don’t really come out in a way I like or that feels at all similar to the experience of looking. Photographing large, tall buildings on relatively narrow city streets is tough, and there are certain things the iPhone camera is better at than others.
the only photo of the downtown cityscape that I like, after years of trying to take a good photo from this particular outlook
Because of this I find myself gravitating towards shots that are so zoomed in, to capture textures and the gorgeous architectural details that populate the Italianate buildings. I have been experimenting with a way to document the neighborhood, and the gentrification process, in a way that doesn’t feel voyeuristic (? I’m not sure if that’s the right word yet). But focusing in on these micro textures is much more enjoyable and achievable than taking wider shots of whole buildings that don’t communicate as much about the design and materials as they do the larger transition that has happened into whatever flavor boutique.
The roofscapes are harder to capture because they are so striking and constantly shifting and re-inventing themselves as you walk/crane your neck/crouch, and rarely register in photos the way I want them to. Only rarely, and typically with these really aggressively skewed angles, do I get images that feel accurate to what I see.
There is only one photo currently that I took with my phone in a way that created a view I wasn’t participating in as I took it. This one I took today is in that same vein: I extended my phone as far as I could reach towards the ground and took the photo to get an angle of the mud splatters on the pole that I physically could not experience without lying down in the street, next to the curb. I’m not sure if I should include ones like this since I’m specifically trying to capture images that approximate my own physical, visual experience.
In terms of presentation, I am planning on constantly sorting and re-organizing the photos as I add new ones. They’re currently arranged vaguely geographically and vaguely chronologically. There are a few VA/RI intrusions which I’ve noted, but most of the images are from OTR, and over the next month-ish, the bulk of the photography for this project will be completed. I’m not sure how my aesthetic choices will alter when I’m in Greece/Rome over the summer, which will be interesting to document as well.