Reflections

I have been thinking about my photorealist theories. As we know, photorealist paintings use photography as a launching point. However, the end product of the photorealist, while superficially resembling a photograph, is almost never concerned with "the decisive moment"—the description of a particular moment in time, which informs even the most static of Weston still-lives.

Photorealists quite frequently start with a source photograph as their initial inspiration; they might even use back projectors outlining the photograph on their canvas. At that point, their main decisions have to do with overall composition and the issue of how much detail to put in.

My question is: could the process go in the other direction? In other words, given that photographic files are now, thanks to Photoshop, incredibly plastic, could one start with a photograph and "work backwards" to a photorealist composition? I wouldn’t doubt that it would be possible. One would have to decide what a "photorealist composition" is, to begin with, and then, how to technically achieve the result.

I decided to try, for the moment, to duplicate a Richard Estes photorealist painting. As we all know, Mr. Estes is famous for including reflections in his paintings. See here, and here. So all I would have to do would find a suitable subject (with reflections) and squeeze off a few shots.

Well, it wasn’t quite that easy, but during a recent trip to San Francisco (luncheon date with my daughter, Shawna) I tried to scout out various locations. It turned out that this photo of a revolving door was the best example that I was able to find. At the Citibank Building, I think . . . at the corner of, um, Montgomery and Market? Of course, there’s more to it than the initial exposure. This photo, then, is the first iteration of this project.

Photo: Revolving Door—San Francisco, 2008