William Oldacre Photography

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The Shape

Light Signatures series, day, colour photograph, art, abstract, abstract expressionism, creative, city street, urban, downtown, cityscape, speed, blur, movement, motion, yellow, blue, muted, streaks, layers, pattern

Cold Ground Warm Horizon, 2014 – Light Signatures :: (click to see more)

In a recent conversation I made an off hand comment about the shape of the city, then immediately realized how important the shape of the city really is to me. (Funny how the really important stuff comes out of your sub-conscious when you least expect it).

In pondering the shape and how best to portray it – it’s not just the static Euclidean geometry of the space but the passage through it that matters to me. Some combination of the shape and the experience of it. If I could I would include the tactile and aural elements too – but for now I’ll stick with the part I’m most familiar with – the visual.

I’ve been considering some kind of continuous moving collage of blurred elements but not just linear smears. There have to be irregular elements that emerge at random from pauses in the viewing or moments of interest that dominate the view.

Scale of the perspective is important too – I think something slightly smaller than adult size – say how the scale of the city would appear to a small child. Everything is larger to a kid – distances are greater, time is longer. There is grandeur inherent in our youthful gaze – a fresh newness resulting from our innocence. What are these mysterious and wonderful things we see all around us.

This is what I seek in the shape of the city.