On Your Knees, Please!

Challenge 8: "On your knees please... Take a photo from floor level." - Matt Stuart

When I seen this challenge appear I knew immediately what photo I would use if we could submit older images. This photo was taken in March of this year and is one of my favourite ground level images to date. I think I will attempt to take a photo quite similar to this one as I love the blurred legs and phantom shoes that display the kinetic energy. That, to me, is one of the best paradoxes of photography: a still image that coherently conveys motion or dynamism.

So, having reattempted the same image the results were the same. I find shoes with heels work really well when blurred... They become so much more surreal. The legs attached to the shoes fade and become oddly ethereal, and wisp-like.

Whilst out photographing I realised that although I enjoyed photographing with longer shutter speeds to try and capture the 'spirit' of the city and the perpetual motion that exists in it, I prefer to be involved in the urban environment. So, keeping to the brief, I set out to photograph a set of shoes that could function as a suitable portrait. This allowed me to work within my documentary portraiture and comply with the challenge set by Matt Stuart.

His name is John Lawreneson and he smokes a pipe.

-PM