Young Lady Smoking a Cigarette

Young Girl Smoking a Cigarette: Paris 2010

I have always been interested in photographing things from above. Besides offering an interesting perspective, it also makes the viewer invisible. I mean who looks up? Whenever I am photographing , my first instinct is to seek the higher ground. I know Rodchenko was one of the first artists to explore different camera angles, it continues a fascination for the many photographers that followed.

I really feel sort of like an angel when I am hovering above my subject. They are usually lost in their own thoughts, in their own worlds oblivious to me and my camera. I do this a lot. On one of my more recent posts I also showed an image taken from above. It was also taken in Paris at the same time. It helps when places have elevation. Unfortunately in Florida where I live, it is relatively flat although I still search for staircases, second floors, ladders, etc. to shoot from. It can be done.

I once saw an interview with Ralph Gibson where he talked about  a theme he worked on which consisted of photographs taken from only three feet away. “How original” I thought. Perhaps I should do something similar—photographs from above. If I have to have a theme, it should be simple and free of bullshit. For those of you who insist on photographers having a concrete theme to work from, how about it. Let me know.