Absence of Presence 01
Another step back into street photography for this blog, after all, street photography is now such a broad brush of sub-genres it can be all things to all people and take on any meaning you want it to mean, thus I’m going to talk about street photography without people, or to be more precise - the ‘absence of presence’ which is a sub-genre (that’s not new) that considers images which suggest the implication of human trace …. “was there” - “are about to be there ?”
The concept behind this type of imagery is to present the viewer with (ideally) a question by essentially with-holding something back, not presenting the full picture (excuse the pun, although quite intentional really) but attempting to evoke a feeling & emotion through omission, with the omission clearly being the lack of a person or persons.
In the current age of fast consumption for just about everything we do it’s nice to look past this and slow down a pace, take time to consider the extraordinary in the mundane, ask ourselves “how did that get there ? - why is it there ? - are they coming back for it ?”
This stuff is often all around us, and can take on different interpretations & meaning dependant on how it’s viewed, to some people it may appear as abandoned junk (although it isn’t - that’s fly tipping by any other name) for others prepared to look a little deeper it’s a way of compiling their own narrative to what’s being presented and the question asked.
You could possibly consider it as ‘street still life’ - again a term I’ve seen used to describe this style of imagery, and I rather like that !
In this first part of ‘absence by presence’ I will consider those images that lack a person or persons, but quite obviously contain an object that suggests presence was there or will be there - there will be a second part of this series that will look into the ‘absence of presence’ but more based around ‘light-scape’ which is a more moody theme of this particular sub-genre.
So, to consider the images below, top left, it’s just a deckchair propped up against the wall right ? - waiting for the rubbish collectors ? - could be, but look a little deeper and I’d suggest it’s where a person sits to have a smoke (evidence all around on the ground) as they’re most likely banished from the house ? - maybe they’re sat smoking in anguish on account of the missing cat ? - maybe the cat has ran away of its own volition from fear of lung damage on account of all the smoke around ?
See where I’m going with this ? - the most mundane and ordinary can provoke questions for the viewer if sufficient connective tissue is also included within the scene.
The image below, middle left, would suggest some form of outside party maybe ? - has it happened yet ? - is it about to happen ? - possibly yes as there are a couple of bikes in the background, surely belong to attendees of this party … ?
I will leave you to interpret the other images as you wish, but hopefully now I’ve sown the seed your imagination can run wild !!
(are those shopping trolleys actually for sale, or just being cleaned ? - I really wish I’d have found someone to ask - the red fleece looked my size also)
