The Flatiron Building ( Fuller Building ) 175 Avenue in the borough of Manhattan, Completed in 1902.
The images i'm working with are:
- Alfred Stieglitz, 1903.
- Edward Steichen, 1905.
- Alvin Langdon Coburn, 1911.
- Walter Gropius, 1928.
- Walker Evans, 1928.
- Berenice Abbott, 1938.
My first impressions and biggest difference I feel when I look at the images is quality, as the years pass, im guessing processing & negatives improve over the years as technology progresses, Contrast seems to be more directed to just the darks & not everywhere, I don't feel so connected with the newer images, for example, ( Alfred Stieglitz, 1903 )
feels like so much more time & love has been put into the images, real concentration and thought. alfred also used a colour compound he put into the process which shows real experiment. Compared to ( Berenice Abbott, 1938 ) Which i'm guessing by the image, angle, it feels very rushed, due to the era of point and shoot camera's coming into play, the love doesn't disappear from the photographers point of view, but does with the camera, just feels like there is less control and more, point and shoot, then walk away.
in the first 3 images by, edward, Alfred and Alvin, there are always edges of landscape involved such as the tangling tree's with the vast building lurking in the background showing more scale, maybe again trying to say how industrialisation is taking over the natural landscapes and entangling with man made, hows the tree's cross over the building as if its taking over, in the last 3 images by Walter, Walker & Berenice, they discard the landscape, it turns more experimental with Angles and involving other objects and cross overs with walkers image, who creates a quiet contemporary & fine art feel. but does the images in the later years excluding the floor also means how they feel overwhelmed, but these Massive buildings being built, standing over them with such vast power, that its the start of something crazy.
Edwards images compared to Alvin's, feel quiet similar, but you can see growth, a new lamp post appears, plus more people, 6 years of population growth, possibly due to the city's popularity growing also, people find it exhilarating & feel its the place to be, ( very inviting ) alvin keeps the top of his building in the images where as Edward's disappears into the clouds.
all the images have a very long depth of field, I don't feel any of the images would of required a shallow depth due to the size of what there photographing, they want to include everything the camera is pointed on.
Looking at other works by Walker Evans its really interesting, the subject matter if buildings are very cropped, and tight in the scene, and now he's faced with this huge building & its as if he still feels the need to keep it very busy, Involving other subjects into the photograph and making it completely different from what other people are doing, Walker is still patient with his work.
Berenice abbots photograph reminds me of a holiday snap, you can defiantly see growth in the photograph, also involving large scale advertising, but its not a very distinctive photograph, many a people probably took a photograph very similar to this. it does have fantastic contrast within the lines of the building and the difference against the backdrop of the overcast sky gives it that floaty sense due to the slight lean too, as if its been cut out & stuck onto a light coloured paper.
Walter gropius's image, I get the impression he was walking around, looked up and realised he couldn't fit the whole image into the viewpoint of the lens, so he just turned it. but it gives such a crazy perspective when you do look at it straight on and don't turn your head, you semi have to work out whats going on. comparing again to the earlier photographs, the experimental stage just shows vast changes where as earlier where more controlled.
