Assignment 1. Architecture and Still Life. 19th century.

Thomas Annan(1829-1887) is supposed to be one of the first photographers who started to record life of poor people. In 1866 he was commissioned by the Glasgow City Improvement Trust to photograph slum areas in the old part of the city before urban renewal took place. As a result a remarkable set of pictures ‘Photographs of Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow’ (1868-1877) appeared.
Let us have a look at ‘Close, No. 193 High Street’ photo. Thanks to the low key light the author managed to create an extremely fascinating scene with almost a chiaroscuro effect. Choosing to shoot from the level of the washing (which is the place a bit above the pavement) not only helped Annan to preserve the one-point perspective and show how the street is running far away, disappearing in the background, but first and foremost, this vantage point let the photographer show the world of poverty somehow from aside, from the place where, presumably, he considered the Glasgow City Improvement Trust would be.
Despite it was the very dawn of photography, Thomas Annan managed to make the picture look very dynamic. It is not only the way the photographer combines vertical and horizontal lines in a mysterious equilibrium, but also the objects and their color, that he chooses to include into the frame. The clothes hanging all along the street undoubtedly produce a strong rhythmic pattern. And the alternation of the black and gray colors of the washing creates an impression of some imperceptible inner movement. All that leads very logically to the visual climax of the picture, which is the light from above in the very end of the dark street.
This photo looks very symbolic to me. The way Thomas Annan framed the image leaves much place for a contemplation concerning the underlying meaning of the whole scene. Dark foreground, some very shabby clothes in the wind, the high wall on the left and almost black windows seem to be very static, stable and hopeless. However, the stairs on the right, the playing kids, the flare reflected in the dirt on the pavement and the circle of light oozing through the leaden clouds, all that being opposed to a massive negative space looks like the photographer had hope for those people (For their kids at least). As if after the reconstruction the look of the street could change and the future would be much better. Quite a Utopia, certainly, but a superbly created one.