I recently bought the photography book "London" with photos by Sergio Larrain Printed by Aperture. The book is obviously about Mr. Larrain's time in London. As soon as I leafed through this book this image caught me. It grabbed me so strongly that I ripped off a little piece of paper and wrote "he had to be there". Well when an image speaks to you so, you must do a deep dive. So here it is...
About Sergio Larrain:
Not a bunch to know really, he was born in Chile, picked up photography around 1949, studied in the US (California and Michigan) went to Europe, meet with Henri Carrie-Bresson in Paris where he joined Magnum and was given a second Leica. Stieglitz from MOMA bought a couple of his prints and then went to London and spent a few months before moving on. He went home to Valparaiso in Chile and took images of street urchins. He then stopped pursuing photography and moved on with his life.
"What did he do in London?" you might ask....well we have no idea. Very little is known of his time there but I think I know...or at least I think I lived it. Let me explain....
If you look at Larrain's images during this time, he is capturing things from odd vantage points, his images are blurry, out of focus, show camera shake and are off horizontal. He has a bunch of wonderful images taken from a two story bus shooting down on people...sometimes while the bus is in motion and other times when it is still. Few images are head on and those few seem to be taken candescently. In short, Larrain seems to feel out of place.
It is clear he likes what he is looking at but he does to want to interact...he does not want to be seen. He wants to capture what his nerve allows him to.and then move on. He is almost shy in his approach to street photography and yet manages some powerful images. I believe I understand this because my time in London was similar, I liked what I saw but I was timid to take photographs of strangers so caught allot of images of people's backs.
Our Image:
Let me clear one thing up....I do not know the title of this image. I have named it A Man After Dark but cannot seem to find the name anywhere. But what do we see....
A foggy morning (night???), in a park with a wrought iron gate, a tree and a single man in a coat and hat hurrying away. Nothing of the image appears in focus....the closest could be the bark of the tree behind the iron gate. There are plants around and the bit of a paved road that the man is walking on.
The iron gates gives it an appearance of almost a graveyard, and the lack of people and fog gives it a mystical feel. So what is it about an early morning, out of focus image that pulls us in? Well for me it is the image of a man who is walking to work...someplace upscale but boring...like a bank. The man is young, and confident but he is walking through a thick fog all alone...almost as if it is not confidence but that he is oblivious to the risks around him.
The iron gate seems to be an entrance to a graveyard and the man seems to be entering into it with a stride that highlights his lack of understanding. As if he is walking confidently to death. This ties with his professional attire, leaves me thinking of our march to death as we walk to our day jobs not realizing how precious time is.
Now, Larrain did not bring this to the image....I did. But he captured an image that gives the viewer room for our own imagination, and interpretation to take over. The lack of focus, the ambiguous subject, the haunting light and shadows leave us with little tangible to grab onto in the image, thus inviting you to fill in the blanks.
How he does it:
Well he had to be there....he had to position himself early in the morning and had to have his camera ready. He composed his image, probably long before the man walked into the scene. He then waiting and captured the image. I believe the blurry focus was not accidental as he uses this often in his images in London. He ensures to capture his subject against the plain bright fog. This almost frames his subject.
So what I take from this....you have to be there....and focus is not important, story telling can even be secondary if you can capture the viewers imagination.
About Sergio Larrain:
Not a bunch to know really, he was born in Chile, picked up photography around 1949, studied in the US (California and Michigan) went to Europe, meet with Henri Carrie-Bresson in Paris where he joined Magnum and was given a second Leica. Stieglitz from MOMA bought a couple of his prints and then went to London and spent a few months before moving on. He went home to Valparaiso in Chile and took images of street urchins. He then stopped pursuing photography and moved on with his life.
"What did he do in London?" you might ask....well we have no idea. Very little is known of his time there but I think I know...or at least I think I lived it. Let me explain....
If you look at Larrain's images during this time, he is capturing things from odd vantage points, his images are blurry, out of focus, show camera shake and are off horizontal. He has a bunch of wonderful images taken from a two story bus shooting down on people...sometimes while the bus is in motion and other times when it is still. Few images are head on and those few seem to be taken candescently. In short, Larrain seems to feel out of place.
It is clear he likes what he is looking at but he does to want to interact...he does not want to be seen. He wants to capture what his nerve allows him to.and then move on. He is almost shy in his approach to street photography and yet manages some powerful images. I believe I understand this because my time in London was similar, I liked what I saw but I was timid to take photographs of strangers so caught allot of images of people's backs.
Our Image:
Let me clear one thing up....I do not know the title of this image. I have named it A Man After Dark but cannot seem to find the name anywhere. But what do we see....
A foggy morning (night???), in a park with a wrought iron gate, a tree and a single man in a coat and hat hurrying away. Nothing of the image appears in focus....the closest could be the bark of the tree behind the iron gate. There are plants around and the bit of a paved road that the man is walking on.
The iron gates gives it an appearance of almost a graveyard, and the lack of people and fog gives it a mystical feel. So what is it about an early morning, out of focus image that pulls us in? Well for me it is the image of a man who is walking to work...someplace upscale but boring...like a bank. The man is young, and confident but he is walking through a thick fog all alone...almost as if it is not confidence but that he is oblivious to the risks around him.
The iron gate seems to be an entrance to a graveyard and the man seems to be entering into it with a stride that highlights his lack of understanding. As if he is walking confidently to death. This ties with his professional attire, leaves me thinking of our march to death as we walk to our day jobs not realizing how precious time is.
Now, Larrain did not bring this to the image....I did. But he captured an image that gives the viewer room for our own imagination, and interpretation to take over. The lack of focus, the ambiguous subject, the haunting light and shadows leave us with little tangible to grab onto in the image, thus inviting you to fill in the blanks.
How he does it:
Well he had to be there....he had to position himself early in the morning and had to have his camera ready. He composed his image, probably long before the man walked into the scene. He then waiting and captured the image. I believe the blurry focus was not accidental as he uses this often in his images in London. He ensures to capture his subject against the plain bright fog. This almost frames his subject.
So what I take from this....you have to be there....and focus is not important, story telling can even be secondary if you can capture the viewers imagination.
