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.
London, England
Muscat, Oman
Essaouira, Morocco
Cardiff, Wales
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands
Frankfurt, Germany
Muscat, Oman
Paris, France
San Francisco, USA
Montgomery, Wales
Essaouira, Morocco
Sousse, Tunisia
Porto, Portugal
Muscat, Oman
Marrakech, Morocco
Sliema, Malta
Muscat, Oman
Paris, France
Essaouira, Morocco
Paris, France
Essaouira, Morocco
Munich, Germany
Porto, Portugal
Essaouira, Morocco
Mahdia, Tunisia
Barcelona, (Catalunya, or Spain)
Muscat, Oman
Porto, Portugal
Paris, France
Porto, Portugal
Muscat, Oman
Essaouira, Morocco
Muscat, Oman
Essaouira, Morocco
Muscat, Oman
Muscat, Oman
Marrakech, Morocco
Valetta, Malta
Original images and written content © Gary Hill 2005-2018. All rights reserved. Not in public domain. If you wish to use my work for anything other than legal 'fair use' (i.e., non-profit educational or scholarly research or critique purposes) please contact me for permission first.
