Street View by Larry Cusick

The street Is a landscape. But it is a landscape unique to the urban environment. As I walk with my camera, I see an unintended art-scape of concrete structures, metal objects, and people, all interacting randomly, and yet not randomly. Conversations echo off of walls, people hurry to cross a street, deep shadows slice through the air, closed doorways stand guard against entry, or street vendors in a topsy-turvy crowded sidewalk do their best to attract attention. There are stories unfolding every day on the streets. I try to understand what stories are being told. A photographic image can work for me if it triggers a mental narrative. 

An image could also work for me if it is an abstraction with no apparent story. But always, the photograph must be arresting. It could be a reflected street scene whose geometry is paradoxical, or highly symmetric. It could be a railroad crossing in the rain or an isolated small restaurant on a lonely street. These are everyday images. I like to take pictures of them.

There is beauty in the street, and my aspiration is to show that through my photography. And by beauty, I might not mean say, a flower or a majestic mountain. There is beauty in the geometrical patterns of the front face of a public building, the thoughtful gaze of a person waiting for something, the unexpected juxtaposition of someone walking by a piece of street art, or the textures of aged dilapidated structures whose purpose is long forgotten.

The photographs I am presenting fall into several categories. They include street photography, candid portraits, architecture, urban exploration, abstract reflective patterns, the so-called new topographics, and others that I may not even have thought of. I love taking pictures on the street. I hope you like them.