london-bound

London Street Photography

I really enjoyed the Street Photography Gallery; it was really cool to see so many old photos. And even though the time frame was from the 1860s to the present it showed that London hasn’t really changed too much. You saw in the early years the business of the town and how men wore suits and dress up more just like they do today. Even the font for the underground is still the same. The one thing I was hoping to see was some pictures of the influenza of 1918; I’ve always heard stories about it and would have liked to have seen some actual pictures of it.  Below I put my two favorite pictures.

Trafalgar Square 1955 by Henry Grant
The subject matter in Grant’s picture was archival pigment print. The theme I would say is feeding the birds. This was after WWII so maybe he was trying to show the light at the end of the tunnel kind of thing. To where people felt like they had enough food to be able to throw some of it out. I felt like the final print says happiness in the fact of the reconstruction and the end of a war time. I also liked how the pigeons made a frame for the picture.

Royal Exchange 1875 by George Washington Wilson
The subject matter in Wilson’s picture was vintage albumen print. I like this picture a lot because it shows the time and effort that was put into photography. You can really see the time put into the picture because of the people being a blur caused by the shutter being left open to capture the photo. I feel that the theme is the little boy on the right hand side. I haven’t figured out why but just the fact that he stood there long enough to be really in the picture makes me what the intent behind this picture is. The final print to me shows how London at this time was an up and coming town and the business within it. The craftsmanship would to me be the using of a tripod for this picture and the little boy being still.