A lovely day at the Aircraft and Auto Graveyard in southern NJ with tons and tons of subjects to spend time on. This is a smattering of the great subjects at this early morning shoot.
There were logos everywhere. What draws photographers to rust, decay, and imperfection? For me, it’s a source of geometric forms, light, and color. And what are photos but just manifestations of those elements? I heard a podcast today where the host was talking about Steven Shore’s book The Nature of Photographs. Discussed here among other places.
His aesthetic guideline was to break photos down into four components
– Flatness
– Frame
– Time
– Focus
For the photos below, they clearly have depth from the shadows, some more than others, but it’s plain to me most images were designed to have raking light to highlight their dimensionality. I chose to wait for some of them until the light came through at a better angle, while a couple of them looked better in flat light (The Harold Budd and the V-8 photos)
For those two photos whose logos were long (Ford), I either used a foreshortening and side angle to emphasize the form. The International logo presented some challenges, but I loved the colors as it was hit with the morning light that I found a crop that I liked that both showed the angular and curved planes.
The Custom logo was less successful as it’s more like a documentation shot.
The Harold Budd logo was all about the color, symmetry, and how the logo shields what’s below.
The V8 turned out lovely with its shimmering gray contrasting with the rust spots and the shadows. The symmetry and tight crop really emphasize those aspects.
Time for all of these photos was pretty much static….long ago abandoned. Rusting away in the forest.
All taken with my trusty friend, the Olympus EM-1 Mk II and the ever-capable 12-40/2.8 Zuiko.
