Peeing On "The Hydrant"

A few days ago I asked for readers to send in a photograph and I would post it and give my honest opinion of it. So, because I almost never break a blog promise...here's the first one! Please, feel free to comment yourselves, it's all in fun.

This picture is from my friend Dennis, who has re-positioned himself in the art world as Vigo Huhnerdrosseler. Vigo is the arrogant, abrasive vegetarian Eurotrash alter-ego of the Mildman, whose work is so excruciatingly good he's almost worth all the trouble. Anyhow, here is a "piece" by Den- er...Vigo. Taken with his shiny new medium format film (remember that stuff?) camera, a sort of Chinese rip-off of a Rolleiflex called "Seagull". The format is 6x6 on 120, same as a Hasselblad.

Anyhow, I was with Vigo when he captured this moment. If you look carefully in the window, you may just see a glimpse of the frightened homeowner reaching for the phone to call the authorities. Vigo does not do "snapshots". Vigo uses a tripod and sets up slowly and deliberately, gazing down into the viewfinder as if it were a WWII bomb sight. The poor residents must have thought they were about to be blown to bits by a mad scientist. I calmly metered the scene with a Sekonic.

The film is Fuji Velvia (Velveeta as Heather calls it). It's a great film for landscapes, with almost surreal saturated colors. But the evil flip side of the stuff is never shoot anyone you like with it, they will look sunburned and freaky.

Ok, composition is bulls-eye. Dead on. Like a six-year old shooting a refrigerator. Vigo prefers the term "accurate". Enough said. Add to that the square framing and the subject of the picture is very clearly the hydrant.

That notwithstanding, I really like the over-saturated colors in this. I think it makes the hydrant look almost like candy. And the late evening sun makes everything glow. Vigo also got down on the level of the hydrant (physically and mentally) and that is something we should all do more. How many pictures of children have you seen taken from an adult perspective? Getting down on the level of the subject can make a huge difference, you are suddenly in its world instead of yours.

So I think it works despite the dreaded snapshot composition. I think this same photo taken with Kodak 120 would not be as effective, even in the late light and down low. In this case I think it's the Velvia that makes the shot. And that choice was made by the great Vigo.