NZ Visual Diary - entry 372

spectres at a bus stop

Paul Simon insisted in song: ‘It’s all happening at the zoo.’

I will not argue with one of the great songwriters of our time, but as a photographer — and then a street photographer — the action is at a bus stop, especially at night when we’re all a wee more wary and weary than usual.

I lingered on Queen Street, Auckland’s 5th Avenue without the high octane of New York City, longer than I had planned, this to do some night photography, a genre I need to do better than I currently do. Because we in the Southern Hemisphere are currently experiencing sunset by 5 p.m. I knew the sidewalks of Queen Street would be crowded with workers on their home, some of whom would crowd bus stops along Queen Street. I enjoy the visual interaction of people sitting on bus stop benches, often too fatigued from a day of screens to look at their phones, who absorb themselves in observation of the street’s late afternoon hustle or slip into interior monologues about the day’s events.

I had hoped to catch some interesting interactions between two sets of actors in my street play: sedentary players seated on the bus stop bench and the waves of extras, as it were, parading either behind or in front of them.

Focusing on my image, the first bit of good luck was the dynamic contrast between the two people who took their places on the bus bench: one bent over and completely absorbed in work on paper, her hands marvellously expressive; the other whose facial expression suggested surprise at the appearance of an apparition in close proximity (yes, excessively dramatic on my part), or simply the vacant stare of a man who longed for the comforts of home.

I waited patiently for some time to capture an image with the additional element of my ‘spectres’ — two eerily silhouetted men — positioned in both fore and background. It was from beginning to end a fun photograph to capture and process, all in pursuit of a visual story.