Photographer’s Secret Subjects – That Other Thing You Shoot

I had a very interesting conversation on a discussion board over at APUG this week. I chucked up a couple of images that I shot while walking around. The shots were of stairs. Yep you heard that right – stairs. You see I for reasons unknown to me have some really strange compulsion to shoot stairs of all shapes and sizes. I have never made a “real” project out of it and am usually ill equipped to shoot them. Even without making it a concerted effort I have about 70 prints that I have made over the years of these images.

I don’t do anything with them. I don’t hang them up on walls or show them to people. The APUG discussion was a rare exception where I sought out a bunch of people thoughts on which particular similar image they thought was print worthy. Hey I am trying to go green here I don’t think I want to actually make 3 different prints of the same staircase with different compositions. I didn’t get an answer – definitively – as to which one was printworthy. There were supporters and detractors of each image. Who would have thought? I guess that didn’t surprise me, what did surprise me is how many folks have similar secret subjects – things that for no particular reason they are compelled to shoot. I am not talking about general things like people or landscapes. I am talking about very specific things like stairs, doors, windows, electric meters, dead trees, you name it. Not just once or for a week but over years and years.

Does every photo enthusiast have that other think that they are drawn to shoot? Do you have something like that? Would love to hear what it is. I am sure it would make those of us that have that secret obsession feel a little less strange. The attached images are the latest grabs from a walk I took to warm up the Leica M6 for it’s come back as my carry around camera. They were shot on Kodak TRI-X and processed in Pyrocat HD.

RB