Urban Geometry
Gary Hill
As my photo-essay 'Street Photography' discusses, I view that that genre as centred on the human element, viewing people as actors on a stage, acting out their lives, telling their stories. The master street photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson famously achieved this, with his depictions of people in daily life, but he also made the interesting observation that photography in general required "a sense of geometry." Urban geometry capitalises and concentrates on this sense. It is a distinct style of street photography that strongly downplays the human presence in favour of details such as the arrangement of shapes, lines and textures and the natural and synthetic light effects that are present in the street scene. People may certainly be included in urban geometry, but they are emphatically not the subject of the image; they are largely superfluous. Urban geometry can also be contrasted with 'urban landscape' or the 'cityscape' style photography which concentrates less on the details and more on the global aspects of the urban scene, usually from a much wider viewpoint.
I have less to say about urban geometry than people-centred street photography simply because I've spent far less time doing it. I'll simply note that I choose to rarely include people and, with modern structures, the result is often beautifully stark and clinical. However, older, and especially less pristine scenes can display the equally attractive characteristics of having been 'lived in' or decaying beautifully.
I have less to say about urban geometry than people-centred street photography simply because I've spent far less time doing it. I'll simply note that I choose to rarely include people and, with modern structures, the result is often beautifully stark and clinical. However, older, and especially less pristine scenes can display the equally attractive characteristics of having been 'lived in' or decaying beautifully.