Recently, my photography has included some more esoteric subject matter. My "Compressions" series photos, which are and extension of the "Tiles" series of photos I have been sharing here on the blog, are more or less the same without the added constraint of a square crop. The subject matter is more focused on shapes, colors and lines as well.
This photo is a great example of what I am looking for when I am shooting in this series. In these photos I am trying to take a scene that exists very differently in three dimensional space and flatten it into a strong two dimensional composition.
The scenes aren't always entirely flattened, as evidenced by the presence of cigarette butts and a small stream of water in the low spot on the ground, but they are compressed enough to make it not immediately apparent what is shown.
The opposing red and green walls are what drew my eye down this alley, and after working with the composition for a few minutes, I finally had taken this shot. It's myriad shapes and opposing colors work as very stark and simple subject matter, and the symmetry of the alley is punctuated by the darker colored lane in the center that leads the eye into the shot.
This has been a fun series to undertake because it is very different than the work I typically shoot. It provides me a level of abstraction that is a nice departure from the way I have traditionally searched for subject matter, and informs the way I shoot more typical subjects. In other words it is a new way for my mind to think about subjects regardless of the type of photo I am taking.