Reflections in windows and the way the mix what’s inside and outside always catch my eye. That’s true whether I have a camera in my hand or I’m just walking. I think that at some level it simply appeals to me, for reasons I can only guess.
Aesthetically, in photography, I know that I enjoy finding order or at least some balance in the visual clutter. And, perhaps stretching it, I think that I like doing images of this sort as a metaphor for life. Finding, or making, order and balance in the chaos and clutter of life, of the mixed up insides and outsides that shape us.
This week’s images are all from the East Town neighborhood in southeast Grand Rapids. They are store windows near or at the corner of Wealthy and Lake. The first set has people in the frame. I found a rough framing of the image and then waited for people to walk or run through.
The second set does not have people. These are more simply the mix of objects inside and outside the store and trying to frame some balance and order. In the first image, it’s the trailer going through the scene that draws my eye. In the second, it’s the signs, first the one on the right, and then the one on the left.
In all of the of the images, I took a matte approach, avoiding deep black and sharp white tones. I wanted calm feeling light to mute the clutter of the images.
No Ordinary Light 