New York Fire Escapes Black and White Architecture Photography
Diagonal Ladders And Their Shadows Across Repeating Brick Windows
Fire escapes are familiar enough in New York City to pass unnoticed. In this black and white photograph, I wanted their ironwork to become the main architecture of the frame. Platforms, railings, and diagonal ladders cross a brick facade, while the sun adds a second network of lines through their shadows.
The windows establish an orderly pattern from one level to the next. Against that grid, the ladders introduce a different direction, carrying my eye downward across the photograph. Their shadows fall beside them rather than exactly beneath them, so the pattern feels doubled without simply repeating the same shape.
I kept the view close enough to concentrate on the facade instead of showing the whole building. Curtains, window frames, ornamental details beneath the openings, and rows of brick remain visible around the metalwork. Those smaller features prevent the composition from becoming only a diagram of lines. They give the surface its particular texture and variety.
The vertical format makes the stacked levels easy to follow. As I look from top to bottom, each platform repeats the basic structure but meets a slightly different arrangement of light, glass, and shadow. That mixture of order and variation is the photograph's appeal for me. An ordinary piece of New York architecture becomes a dense visual pattern, built from things already there in the street.
© Dan Kosmayer, 2011
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About My Fine Art Photography
Every photograph in my collection comes from my own travels, explorations, and years behind the camera.
I create my work as photographic art rather than mass-produced decoration. From street portraits and abandoned places to landscapes, architecture, and the unusual subjects I discover along the way, each image begins with something that made me stop and look.
My photographs are available in multiple sizes so the same image can work in anything from an intimate wall space to a large statement installation.
