I was thoroughly inspired by Lee Friedlander, particularly his photo taken in a car stationary at traffic lights with a reflection of a bridge in the wing mirror. There is a good contrast between the darkness of the interior of the car and the brightness and vividness of the day. There are two focal points, the background and the reflection in the mirror. This photo also demonstrates the rule of thirds because of where the wing mirror is positioned. The window frame particularly draws attention to the reflection and the buildings in the background. From the perspective it is taken, it suggests a journey and moving forward in the background and looking back in the past in the reflection. It also feels as if you are the person looking out of the window which is captivating.
Lee Friedlander Car Photography
To begin with, I did something very similar to Friedlander, using the mirror as the central point on the rule of thirds intersecting lines. Something I wanted to focus on was the sky as in one of Friedlander’s photos, the sky was very dramatic. To develop this photographer futher, I took several photos with half the car in view including more of the interior, windscreen and background. I also colour selected specific areas of the images. Afterward, I then took more photos with the mirror as the focus and colour selected so that either the mirror or the background was in colour.
To make my photography a bit different to Friedlander’s, I attempted to use motorbike mirrors, not only for the different shape but for the location. I chose to keep these photos in full colour because many of the motorbikes were vibrant colours which stood out against the background. In a few of the photos, I used shutter speed to get the movement of the London traffic which I thought was very effective as it draws attention to the reflection in the mirror. The photos were generally triangular composition but I also used rule of thirds in some of the photos.
