Return to the Boring Gray Bridge

I mentioned much earlier in my Vox blog how I use a bridge close to my office as a photographic subject and exercise when I don't have anything better to shoot. Last week, John on the Photo WalkThrough podcast set the challenge of shooting the same thing for five straight days so I figured that it was time to go back to the boring gray bridge.  I started out apologetic about this photo project but the more I get into it, the more proud I am of the results. Coincidentally, I am taking a short class at the Photography Center here in San Francisco and the instructor asked us to bring contact sheets along of projects we are working on.  I took along my Street Parking and Boring Gray Bridge series.  The former got an OK reception but the later got a very warm reaction that has reinforced my faith in this project.

So what did visiting the bridge for 5 days teach me?

First off, I am always fearful that when I visit the bridge I won't find anything new to shoot. This was especially true when I committed to post a picture each day even if this was just a self-imposed project.  Remarkably, considering the banality of the subject, this has not happen to me yet.  Every time I go I some how manage to find something new to shoot or a new approach to shoot something I've shot before.  It can be as simple as a change in the light or weather, or a small detail or angle I've overlooked previously.  That's not to say I am some remarkable photographer.  No, I think anyone who calls themselves a photographer could do this and amaze themselves in the process. Choosing one subject to revisit and re-shoot over and over is turning out to be a much more powerful exercise in exploration and seeing than I ever imagined. It forces you to stretch and reach in ways I didn't realize that it would.

Second, just because a subject is dull and overlooked doesn't mean that it's not worth photographing.  In fact, because it is obviously dull it makes you work harder to dig and find hidden, photographic potential. Some of the pictures I've made are pretty dramatic in a very graphic way that other photographers seem to respond to.  What I'm noticing now is that a couple of my contacts on Flickr are berating me for calling the series "The Boring Gray Bridge".  I try to explain to them that I am not being self-effacing and I don't think my images are boring, quite the opposite. I hope they are visually interesting, but that doesn't make the bridge itself any less of a bridge, or less gray, or any less unremarkable if you were just to drive over it.  I'm trying to show what generations of photographers before me, from Paul Strand on forwards, have shown, often much more successfully than I can hope to achieve; that there is true beauty to be found in the most utilitarian of subjects.

Third, the more work I put into this set, the more ownership I find I am taking of both the project and the bridge itself.  I used to be very dismissive of the project; "Oh that?  That's just a photographic exercise."  Now I'm proud to work on these images and don't just rush through them with two-minute photoshop treatments.  It's funny that I now call the bridge, "my bridge" but I feel like I've looked at it harder than anyone else recently so now I am its temporary steward.

Forth, when the weather is nice I get lazy.  I rely on the strength of the blue of the sky to provide drama.  When the weather is overcast or raining I work harder to make the shot; the diffused light makes for less blatantly dramatic visuals but makes for pictures that are more about the bridge than they are about the sky.  I'll never be able to resist the pull of a dramatic sky but I will try to focus more on the bridginess of the bridge rather than how concrete contrasts with a vivid blue.

Fifth - there are limits.  Five days in a row are about as many as I can take of this subject.  It got easier up until day four but day five was tough.  I am interested to know what would happen if I pushed on through.  Would I get a visual second-wind and find images I can't yet imagine or would I just start to repeat myself and destroy the project?  Maybe I'll try and find out what happens later in the year but for now I'll limit myself to one visit a week to try to keep the project alive.

I assume this is a finite project; that, at some point, I will say "That's it.  It's finished."  It's going to be interesting finding out how close I am to that point.  For now I've squeezed out 40 or so images; does the bridge have a hundred in it?  Do I?  I don't yet know but I do know how valuable this project has already been to me and recommend something similar to any photographer looking for an exercise.