Well it seems that yet another one of my images has stirred up a good discussion on here once again, which is a good thing right???
Anyhoo getting back to the picture - when I took the shot I wasn't actually interested in a sense of place, or emotion or even the quality of the light if I am honest, although I was more than aware of what it was doing to help lead the viewers eye through the scene and I felt under pressure to shoot it on this occasion before the light had a chance to change in any way. So no, the shot for me was never about those 'things' at all or in any way, but it was all about the blocks of colour, lines, symmetrical curves, repeating shapes and blocks of three etc, and how I could place them within the frame in such a way that I could design (yes that is correct, DESIGN) the shot, to show a sort of loose 'Golden Spiral' of compositional elements within the scene - think of a loosely held together Mandelbrot spiral here if you are unsure of the term. You see I wanted viewers to engage with the scene on a more subliminal level and hopefully like it, but not really know why they liked it, as it was just an old street scene with a few windows and a bit of interesting light at the end of it after all, wasn't it? But yet it still felt satisfying to look at, yet for no good reason, an 'I like it, but I don't know why I like it, but I just do' kind of thing.
I originally called the shot 'Shooting Shapes' but changed it to the name above later, after discussing my Malboro Man shot on here and perhaps I shouldn't have, as the original title was perhaps a little more explanatory, but then I thought what the heck, if people like it and they don't know why they like it, then that is mission accomplished isn't it?, and the name is therefore irrelevant, but perhaps I was wrong. So the thing I was trying to create was more of an abstract design of diminishing shapes, with the subject being a loosely fitting Golden Mean of those diminishing shapes that led you inexorably towards a doorway on the middle right, but that you couldn't see into, or an alleyway leading out of the scene to the left, but yet again that you couldn't see into, sort of like a fork or crossroads at the end of the road and both leading to who knows where?
So yes there was a lot of thought and design and work that went into this shot and it took me several return visits to this location to get exactly what I wanted, so it definitely wasn't a stroll by tourist shot and is why I thought it was a little more unique than your average old Spanish village alley shot, yet still keeping within its style of whatever you would want to call this type of shot.
I was hoping that people you would get all this and perhaps even without realising it, but it seems that some of you were unable to see past your own visual preconceptions and into what the shot is really about, and which I have already stated in far too many words above, and how the shot has very little to do with what you see on the surface of your screens.
So OK, it now it sounds like I am becoming really churlish and trying to say that the reason you didn't 'get it' for all those who don't, is because you were unable to understand it and so it is your fault and not mine that you don't like it or get it and perhaps to some extent I am, although I am trying very hard not to, as that would just make me sound like a pompous arsehole, which believe me I am definitely not (OK argue amongst yourselves here on that point). But can you not at least see the design of the shot and how everything in it is only there because it needs to be in there to complete the design of a sort of subliminal golden mean spiral? Because that IS the subject of the image and is the only subject I was trying to work with, as everything else in the scene is secondary to that and is also why I didn't want anyone walking through the shot or a dog taking a piss (jeez are we really getting down to that level of discourse?) and so I waited until the alley was completely empty, as to have a human form or any other biological entity within the shot I believe, would have broken up and ruined the spiral design of the shapes and therefore the real subject of the shot.
Dave