Colour Street Photography - In the Shadow of Mountains

My tutor advised me to research colour street photography in preparation for assignment three. Although assignment three doesn't specifically request the street photography genre, I get the impression that my tutor thinks this offers the best opportunity in this instance for using colour to enhance narrative. I do like to get out and about as my second assignment demonstrates, so that may have also had some bearing on the suggestion.

So where to start? In all my time as a hobbyist photographer, I have never taken the time to look at others' work, except on an informal basis such as flickr. In order to begin my research I needed to find some renown street photographers whose work I could study. A google search for street photography gave me the following blog article:

http://erickimphotography.com/blog/2013/11/26/street-photography-composition-lesson-12-color-theory/

Many of the photographs used to demonstrate colour as a compositional tool in the article are by photographer Steve McCurry. I decided to investigate his work further, as I was drawn to the images in the article, and I also recognised one of them, the ultra-famous image Afghan Girl.

I visited a library I often frequent and picked up the book 'In the Shadow of Mountains' which is a cross-section of McCurry's work when visiting Afghanistan (which he has done more than 30 times over several decades). The images in this book could be analysed and discussed on many different levels, but I focused my own interpretation primarily on the use of colour, and made notes on images that I could identify, even with my limited knowledge, as making strong use of colour to enhance the narrative. In the 'background information' section at the end of the book, explanations are given for each image, and occasional they mention the use of colour, which of course I found very helpful. With that in mind, some of my brief notes are taken from the book, but mostly they are my own.


'Colour, light and composition are just the building blocks for telling a story' - Steve McCurry


'Teeth Maker' - The golden light from the sinking or rising sun illuminates the wooden outline of the stall, and contrasts heavily with the blackened interior, framing the subject. The primary colour yellow and the secondary colour green compliment each other here (not in a heavily contrasting way).

'Portrait Photographer' - The red of the boxy camera body contrasts strongly with the green/grey shutter behind it and the generally muted colours in the rest of the scene. Perhaps an example of 'accented' colour.

'Women at a Jewellery Shop' - A green window frame, blue shutter and red object near the top of the image serve to frame the vivid white burkhas worn by the women.

'Women Outside a Mosque' - The soft blue of the burkha at the forefront of the image leads the eye up to the green window frame through which can be seen men at prayer.

'Sikh Schoolboys' - Although yellow and green are not opposites on the colour wheel (in fact that are closely related), the yellow patkas on the boy's heads really illuminates against the dark green background. The purple/blue sleeve and blue pencils also give sparks of colour to the image creating energy.

'Village Girl' - The blue of the clothing and the orange of the background are complimentary colours - opposites on the colour wheel. This provides a heavy contrast and the colours reinforce each other.

'Afghan Girl' - If ever colour theory could be powerfully demonstrated in an image, surely this is it. The green of the background, eyes and patches of clothing is contrasted with its complimentary colour - the red of the headscarf. In my view, the colours in this image create a new dimension, wherein the green in the background 'seeps' through the subject, coming out of the eyes and the ragged holes in the headscarf.

'Schoolboy' - The scene is awash with a very neutral grey/brown colour, but the bright blue benches create an effective counterpoint.

'Widow Receiving Alms from a Restaurant' - At closer inspection of this image there are certain colours that are reflected in different areas of the scene creating a sense of cohesion. The yellow curtain matches the yellow curtain, the blue door frame matches the blue watertank, and the muted brown of the walls and basin are also a match.

'Man with a Horse' - The top quarter of the image comprises the warm golden colour of the setting sun, while the rest of the image is very cool blues.

'Bamiyan Valley' - The dark green of the vegetation frames the yellow of the wheat field, which is made brighter (and hence generates more of a contrast) by the low sun. Although the colours are close on the colour wheel, it is the relative brightness that I think creates the bigger contrast here.

'School Room in a Ruined Building' - The complimentary colours of blue and orange of the rug represents the ray of hope offered by education amongst the dreary colours of the ruined buildings.

'TV Mountain' - The yellow taxi-cabs driving through this grand scene act as accented colours against the muted colours in the rest of the scene, and the grey/blue road in particular. This bright colour is echoed in the sky at the top left of the image almost making it look like that is where the yellow cabs are originating from.

'Brick Kilns' - Similar to the image 'Man with a Horse' in the sense that large areas of a warm colour is juxtaposed with large areas of cool. The contrasting colours reinforce each other, making the warm seem warmer, and the cool cooler. The colours represented in the image aren't pure as in the colour wheel, and aren't exactly opposite, but this is often the case in the real world, with pure colours very rare, but many varieties of broken colours very frequent.

'Boy Selling Oranges' - Colour is used to great effect in this image, where the meagre but bright selection of oranges seem to radiate energy in contrast to the dreary greys of the boys clothing and the ruined car and building. This brightness is also a metaphor for the oranges significance in the boy's day-to-day survival.

'Afghan Fighter' - The stark red of the sofa immediately draws the eye, then the complimentary colour green of the man's shirt and socks stands out, quickly identifying the subject of the image.

'Chicken Seller' - In a similar way to 'Widow Receiving Alms from a Restaurant', this image contains elements of colour mirrored elsewhere in the scene. In this case the cool white/blue of the window frame on the far right balances the mud-splattered wall at the far left. The green doors mirror each other, and the flesh colour of the chickens mirrors the man's face.

'Boy Selling Flatbreads' - The flatbreads in the window, bathed in red/orange light portrays extreme warmth, which heavily contrasts with the coolness of the blues in the window frame and clothing.