In 2014, I was taking a Digital Photography course. Our final assignment was self-directed and I chose to take photos in the style of Stanley Kubrick. While best known for his work as a director, Kubrick’s career started at Look Magazine where he was a photographer in the late 1940 and early 50s. His black and white photographs are recognizable by their unshakable compositions and their mysterious subjects. Kubrick captured moments of couples and drunkards sleeping on the subway, busy Chicago streets, and various urbanites from fence-hopping youths to a high-heeled socialites.While the character and setting is easily identified in his works, the plot is difficult to deduce. This enigmatic convention keeps the viewer engaged, only guessing at what lies beneath the surface.
For my assignment, I visited Old Ellicott City (a local hang-out spot throughout my adolescence) and photographed elements that I thought were visually intriguing and narratively enigmatic. I happened upon these photographs two years down the line to participate in a high-school printmaking project about implied presence. I’ll be making an etching from my original photograph, Bins (pictured below.) More updates to come as the project unfolds!
-B. Leahy, 2016
Sound & Sweet 