Flowerpot Face, Tallinn
(Photo by Karen Scott)
But aside from the quirky or abstract, the real fascination of urban photography is in the all-too-human stories which a well-chosen image - whether carefully crafted or craftily spontaneous - can conjure from the ether. Developed further (beyond my own tentative forays), this is at the root of effective photo-journalism. I’ll dip my toe into this world through just a handful of captioned frames below… after which, I’ll let the viewer ponder the untold tales (and indeed locations) which the remaining pictures have forever frozen in time! :-)
Urban
At the risk of underselling myself, this particular Portfolio page is something of an experiment for me. The fact is, I’ve barely set foot in a city since adopting a more ‘considered’ approach to photography around the start of 2020. And this is not entirely due to the unhappy alignment with lockdown; even before Covid struck, urban landscapes were far from my natural habitat. For one thing, I’m not especially comfortable in crowds… and in photographic terms, I’m neither bold nor brazen enough (usually!) to capture the kind of ad-hoc people portraits which can add so much depth and character to the best ‘street’ images.
Nonetheless, perhaps because it doesn’t come naturally, the concept of urban photography holds an undeniable lure. I’ve therefore dipped into the archives of earlier city visits, often to cruise ports, in the hope of kick-starting this page with something vaguely usable. In doing so, I’ve tried to avoid too much ‘low-hanging fruit’ - i.e. touristy views of castles and cathedrals, or sweeping vistas from clock towers - in favour of images which are slightly more intimate or quirky. And I can learn a bit from Karen in this regard, as these opening Tallinn frames illustrate!
Touring Tallinn
(Photo by Karen Scott)
Iceland may be steeped in Norse mythology and tectonic marvels, yet it also contains some contemporary surprises. This is the grand foyer of Reykjavík Opera House; if you look closely, you may even glimpse a hapless photographer mirrored within the hive-like ceiling panels!
Heimaey is the largest of Iceland's highly-seismic Westman Islands. A 1973 eruption swallowed the suburbs, yet much of the town survived... and continues to thrive, the improbably neat white buildings standing proud beyond the now-solidified lava flows.
A huge cruise ship forms an incongruous backdrop to the celebrated Venice skyline. Although a staple of the tourist-rich Italian economy, the environmental damage caused by these behemoths is said to be expediting the city's sinking. Ironically, this photo was taken aboard such a ship during its morning sail-in.
Tourists are often presented with sanitized versions of their chosen destinations, promoted through neatly-packaged tours to local beauty spots. By contrast, a free afternoon during a Canadian cruise allows us to visit downtown Quebec, where a noisy climate protest is in full swing.
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