Every morning I get off my bus at the end of the Old Kent Road, having been taken down around 1/3rd of it. I began tests this morning by getting off my bus early on the way to work and walking down a section of the road shooting hand held.
I stood on the central reservation and shot at 90 degrees to the buildings that line the road. I shot an image then side stepped around 10 paces and shot again. I continued until I reached the end of the road at the Bricklayers Arms Roundabout. To begin editing I overplayed each image one at a time and spliced it straight down the middle, sometimes it fitted perfectly, other times where there was a lot of perspective change it looked weird and abstract. Both ways were interesting and the whole experience gave me a better understanding of the techniques I would need to perfect. I considered shooting the whole road hand held, quite a long and slow process, however I have decided against for several reasons.
1, it goes against the almost automated system Ruscha undertook
2, the camera is not high enough
3, not always possible to walk down the middle of the road
When I was shooting hand held I made too many decisions, “That car doesn’t look right”, “That person will look better in front of that window” etc. I don’t want those decisions to be made, the whole point is to document what I find, photography has a long running debate (since it’s inception) about whether a photograph is an honest depiction or if like paintings or drawings the artist has a bias. Detractors say that photography is just pressing a button, capturing what is there, whereas others say everything about an image is decided by the photographer. The photographer has overall control over when to press that shutter, the wait for the right light, the moving elements of the image to fall in to the right place, they even rearrange objects to suit their aesthetic/goals.
Ed Ruscha drawing of his set up
For Every Building I want to be as mechanical as possible, there are reasons I want to shoot how I shoot and I obviously have control over the situation but as much as possible I think shooting from a truck as Ruscha did is the best way to approach it. The truck will travel along the road at a steady pace (depending on traffic) and I will shoot at set intervals using a remote. This means while I press the shutter I won’t be standing there waiting for the conditions I see best with regard to composition, lighting etc. The project is mostly about planning and editing, the photography in the middle will be a pure (as much as I can hope) documentation.
