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NYC Urban Geometry

By Ash Furrow

July 18^th, 2016

Serious street photographers get really upset when I call what I do “street photography.” Photos like mine, they insist, are more of an… urban geometry than they are street. For a while, this really bothered me. But then I realized, if what I do is urban geometry, then I should explore what that means and become better at making urban geometry photographs.

That was about six months ago. Here’s what I’ve got so far.

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I’ve got an upcoming project surrounding slanted architecture, it’s gonna be awesome. Here’s a taste:

Symmetry is really powerful in photography, but the thing is, you have to get it perfect or else it looks terrible. A lot of my early work used symmetry, and I messed a lot of photos up. Eventually, I realized I was leaning on symmetry too heavily and was using it too often. After a few years of working on composition, I now find myself dipping back into symmetry in the urban landscape.

I’ve learned that shadows define as much – or more – of a geometric subject than its edges do. I’m loving this kind of “long shadow” approach, reading a lot about Paul Strand, and I’ve started using more shadows with people. This brings me full circle back to street photography.

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I guess what I love about urban geometry is how it takes my favourite aspect of photography (seeing from new perspectives) and applies it to my everyday life. I always have a camera with me, and I’m always looking for a new way to look at my world.