Photography 1: P & P, Proj 20: Busy Traffic

Project 20: Busy Traffic

For this project I chose a busy location, The National Gallery in London on a Friday afternoon.  I was lucky enough to get a seat opposite this popular painting - "The Toilet of Venus" by Diego Velazquez.  I spent a long time watching the ebb and flow of the crowd around this painting.  Sometimes there were few people and at other times there were many.  The crowd seemed to move in waves.  There always seemed to be some people who were stationary, looking at the painting and others who were hurrying on to see other works.  I had in mind the work of Thomas Struth when carrying out this project, especially his work in the public art galleries.

My aim was to show the busyness of the location.  I kept the exposure relatively slow to create some blur.

The resulting photograph is shown below:

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The problem with shooting people in a gallery such as The National Gallery is that photography is not normally allowed, as an official gently reminded me.

The essential things to bear in mind when attempting to show busyness are:

• Choose a busy location and find a viewpoint that will give you a satisfying composition as well as a good sense of the nature and function of the space.
• Spend some time watching how the flow of people works - the patterns they make, any surges or lulls in movement and numbers and how this can contribute to the composition of the shot.
• The inclusion of some blur can add to the feeling of business of the location.