The common thread in these images could be dubbed architexture: They somehow capture an urban scenery, but the close up view prevents the idea of proportions and relationships. Light and shadow as the only factors contributing to an intriguing sight, what otherwise might not be particularly showy nor worth one’s time. In photography as in design, there are two views on things: How we evaluate them and how they actually appear before our eyes. One is an abstraction, assignment to a category by its properties, whilst the other is the nameless impression, where we perceive textures and interactions.

I continue the series of black and white photos, still from the year 2006 and focusing on the phenomenon that shadows can be an essential part of an image. It may sound trivial, but for some reasons unknown to me, a couple of people seem to ignore shadows which inevitably leads to unbalanced and strange looking compositions. It is my experience that the best approach is not to give any names at all to things we select as a motif. In the end we select a segment, a pattern we consider attractive because of its arrangement of contrasts.

Here comes the second set of black and white photos, which were taken during the course of 2006. The main focus lied on building up a composition by use of an unusual perspective. Perhaps it looks more difficult than it actually is, because the actual composition is already around. It has more to do with training the eye to perceive these spots in our daily and often overlooked environment.

A lot of my photos I shot over the years are used as a starting point for graphics, though I have to admit it is not as easy to recognise any more as it was in earlier works. To me, photography is about finding spots in my environment that naturally form an attractive arrangement of shapes and contrasts. I may write more about that at a later time, but for now here’s a small selection from black and white photos I took between 2005 and early 2006.