Rush Street, 2 AM
Usually, looking through my photographs makes me smile, as it brings recollections of favorite places,
fondly remembered travel experiences, or the quiet joy of capturing a very special work of nature.
But sometimes a photo gets made simply because it’s “there” and,
through the photographer’s eye and sensibilities, it can’t not get made.
Such was the case one late night in Chicago in the middle 1980’s. I was
walking back to my hotel after a late dinner and some jazz along Rush Street.
Fortunately, there was still some high speed film in my camera from some shooting earlier
that night, which allowed me to capture this fleeting but, to me, very poignant “nightscape.”
From an Ektachrome transparency.
© 2010 Steve Ember
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| Section | People: Street & Situation |
| Folders | Nightscapes U.S. |
| Views | 4,549 |
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Susanne Kämmner 12/12/2015 18:43
At first glance those impressive frogs attract attention. It would seem likely to comment in a humourous way on them and therewith to signal into your direction that your photo has attracted attention.I won´t do it, Steve. Simply because your – at first sight funny – picture, expresses in a visual way some social criticism, and on top of that it even contains some social explosives.
The three chief characters in your photography are the frogs, the female tramp and the shopping bag with the succinct imprint “jewel”.
Let us attend to the old lady. We can watch a woman, who we doubtlessly can categorize as “the lady is a tramp”. Her poverty is highly visible. She is marked by it; her struggle for a daily survival is obvious.
Laconicly exactly in front of her an unimpressive shopping bag is put in place. The above mentioned “social explosives” are to be found in the imprint “jewel”. It suggests wealth and opulence. Ironically this shopping bag seems to belong to the lady tramp, doesn´t it?
Therewith we find (in a figurative sense) a 100% contrast between two worlds: poverty and wealth.
And then there are the frogs. Solely with their imprints “Kiss me” they establish a connection to the fairy tale “The Frog Prince”. In a figurative way they suggest a kiss is all that is needed and wishes become true. And the way how she looks directly at one of the frogs seems to imply that she is thinking exactly in this way.
Now let us merge those three single strings and your photo becomes in some way an adapted visual narration of “The Frog Prince”. It visually suggests the Lady tramp only has to kiss one of the frogs and soon she will have access to the “jewels” and in a broader sense will leave her life in poverty for a life in wealth.
Steve, in your function of being the photographer of this composition please accept my admiration for this work of yours. You have staged a complete story “simply” by pushing the shutter button in the perfect second. Solely by capturing this special second you were able to add an enormous depth in substance in your photography. But you wrote by yourself: sometimes a photo cannot get made; it is just there. But - these are your words again - a photographer needs the "eyes and sensibility" and a certain foreshadowing as otherwise such moments remain forever unnoticed and unseen.
There is only one single point I am not really sure off. Maybe – but only maybe – the picture ratio of 4:3 (means an abandonment of the bears on the right) would have brought even more intensity into your photo´s statement and narration than your chosen format does ??
Andrew J.W. 09/10/2010 12:47
Very imaginative juxtaposition. Solitude and melancholy together with a happy-go-lucky frog looking for affection...Kiribane Photography 21/07/2010 7:43
Reminds me of the stories of Brother Grimm "The princess and the frog". Sometimes everything can go up in a "poof". Nicely seen.