This morning I a catching up on my photo archive. I made this image right before Christmas while sitting by the window at Chan’s Red Dragon for lunch with my friend Martin. Looking at the image this morning I know I was drawn to the contrast between the advertising sign and it’s enthusiasm and the harsh reality for many people I see downtown. This particular image reminds me of the great leap forward in sculpture when artists began to articulate movement through the presentation of a step. In modern art the work of Alberto Giacometti stands out as one of my favorites because of the way he represented the human form in a rough manner that was not classical beauty but rather a form that attempted to reduce a human being to their core essence like a tree that has lost all its leaves.Street photography can depict the human figure in a similar manner. Showing the un-staged reality of life can give me something deeper to think about.
