This post is the final installment of a four-way conversation between Scott Ferguson, David Hume, Dean Lawrence, and myself on four photographs from our recent work. Although geographically distant from one other, having the discussions together and later reading feedback from the community has been a wonderful bonding experience. Thank you to my collaborators and especially to Scott who first conceived of these dialogue-driven conversations and helped shepherd them through to completion. – David Pauley
DAVID P. : I took this photo of a pedestrian crossing in front of a building on the Avenue of the Americas in New York City in January, 2025. It was the day before the U.S. presidential inauguration, and I’d come into Manhattan from Brooklyn that Sunday morning to hear the renowned choir of Saint Thomas Church Fifth Avenue. Engaging with culture and having a camera with me — pointed outward at the City — almost always helps when I’m feeling out of sorts. After the service the sun broke through the clouds, a period of radiance that persisted while I took this photo. Like the neighboring International-style towers of Rockefeller Center, one of which is visible in the background of the frame, 1285 Avenue of the Americas mixes mid-century corporate gigantism with an elegant, almost Zen-like minimalism on the street level. Rolleiflex in hand, I paused before the building waiting for a pedestrian to advance across the plaza. Hoping to highlight the clean lines glimpsed in the viewfinder, I clicked the shutter just as he reached the angle in the curtain glass wall. If only life beyond the frame could be so neatly arranged…!
DEAN: I really like this image. Clean crisp, and ordered. All things I can’t manage. The verticals have hypnotised me. Did you get this hand held David or did I not read correctly. I really dislike to see wonky horizons or converging verticals. Even the chap striding across the frame with such direction and purpose fits in with the verticals on the buildings. This is not how I picture America, I’d have expected to see far more people, obviously I don’t know the area so my expectations come from things I’ve seen on TV. I really do think you planned the weather to perfection, the shadows look super.
DAVID P.: hah, you are too kind, Dean! Getting the verticals lined up with a waist-level finder on the Rolleiflex is fairly straightforward and easy to do even as in this case handheld. While I can’t take credit for the weather I was definitely inspired by the deep shadows when taking the shot. As for the empty streetscape I think that was the product of it being a Sunday morning; normally that part of midtown Manhattan is mobbed. Even still I was aware of three or four other folks about to walk into the scene. I was lucky that this guy’s pace was quicker than theirs!
DEAN: I think that you should plan my next day out. If I’d taken this I’d be over the moon, and I’d have a Rolleiflex!
DAVID P.: When you visit NYC my Rolleiflex is yours for the using! It would be fun to plan a photo walk here.
SCOTT: I love the composition of this shot, set on a quintessential plaza in Midtown Manhattan — although referring to it as Avenue of the Americas as opposed to 6th Avenue might be revealing your non New York City origins.
DAVID P. : Touché, Scott! You can take the boy out of Pittsburgh … etc.!
SCOTT: Kidding aside, I think the overall framing of this shot, with so many geometrical frames within the frame, some of them transparent and revealing yet more frames in depth, and stark slashes of shadow crossing the foreground with similar rectangular columns in the center, and even faint reflections of similar classic mid-century buildings from across the street create a gorgeous ‘playing field’ for the shot that would be a wonderful image in itself.
However, within this remarkable space, lit by beautiful winter light that you refer to in the title, we see two isolated figures — one is more or less an incidental background figure the other is ostensibly the subject of the photo, although it’s tough to compete with the dominance of the architectural setting. What feels interesting about this particular person to me is how much I sense the physicality of their body in motion, even thought their winter clothing. This is in deep contrast to the linear and graphic quality of virtually everything else in the frame. Although they are walking away from the lens and there are no clues about what kind of person they might be or what kind of day they are having, I feel intensely their humanity. I think the shot would be a bit moody even if I didn’t know the context of the day you shot it; one of the busiest parts of New York feels strangely de-populated, with only that random person on the far left of frame and the ‘main’ figure on the right of the frame who is walking away from the light and into an increasingly dark part of the frame. Perhaps the darkness of the destination is reflecting your mood about the direction that day was going.
Thanks David, a gorgeous, if somewhat melancholy shot.
DAVID P.: Thanks, Scott! “Depopulated” is a great word and also fits with the emptiness I was feeling on that particular day, though I hope my introductory narrative didn’t bias your views too much.
DAVID H.: When I first saw this shot it left a strong impression of geometry and man-made structures juxtaposed with the single human figure. This remains the strongest thing in my mind, and it offers more on further examination. The lines and geometry remain the main visual feature; the horizontals convey the depth of the shot as they converge, the shadow in the foreground adds a bit of extra framing to the image. The verticals are almost parallel, converging only slightly towards the top. The figure within the many frames is what gives the image its power. Firstly the figure is neatly captured between the column and the glass wall, and this is pivotal in the image’s success. The capture is in mid-stride, with one foot about to leave the ground and this is also important. We see the edges of the film in frame, indicating that the shot is uncropped. The height of the camera, a TLR, is at the figure’s back, and in a way the figure could be seen as a target as well as a subject. The pose is very much like one of those plastic architectural figures used in models of buildings to give scale and a human presence, and this figure does the same. Ironically, like a figurine, the subject is faceless and we can read nothing other than a purposeful stride that seems at place in the big city. They are a person of action rather than contemplation. But what of their inner life? Does the city empower or diminish them? I feel that the image is successful because the strength of the composition demands attention and holds it so that these other questions, such of the relationship between human and the built environment, are allowed to come to the fore.
DAVID P: Wow, David, I really appreciate this feedback. The image of a plastic figure in an architectural model really resonates with me, though obviously wasn’t on my mind consciously when I clicked the shutter. New York can often seem like such a chaotic place—with the chaos coming from the 8.25 million residents. Your comment makes me aware of how much we are shaped by forces such as the built environment larger than ourselves. And the weather, light, the nasty political climate, etc. I also hadn’t considered how shooting someone from the back, as I often do because I am at times loathe to point a camera in a stranger’s face (an amateur’s anxiety, I know), can bleach out individuality, making the person a kind of cipher. That’s not always true: I’m thinking of a pair of sisters I shot in my recent Coney Island post whose personality comes through via their quirky hats and the choreography of their bodies despite the shot being taken from behind.
Sisters, 2024. Tele-Rolleiflex, Tri-X 400.
To me this Coney Island image points up not just the anonymous, Anyperson quality of the guy in the featured image, but the extent to which his body–a physicality that Scott alludes to–is very much overshadowed or even…almost…crushed by the architecture he seems at pains to get away from. On that somewhat somber note, I want to thank you Dean, Scott and David for an excellent discussion!
I'm a Brooklyn-based photographer and psychoanalyst.
My journey with photography began in middle school in the late 1970s and revived in 2019 when I bought a used film camera and installed a darkroom in my basement.
For 2025 I've decided to use just one camera, a Rolleiflex 2.8F, to document the year. While I am not on social media, you can reach me at [email protected].
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