Perspective - Buildings and Stairs

In the previous post I started to investigate street photography images that use the power of perspective to drive the observer's eye and create interest.
Now I'll keep examining this subject and see other patterns street photographers use that are built around perspectives.

Perspective is much about lines, clear and bold, or subtle, just suggested ones, crossing one another or running away from us.

Buildings and sky scrapers

Great examples of images with stunning perspectives are of course buildings, especially sky scrapers, seen from the bottom. These views, so common in street photography, provide excellent lines running towards the sky.

Anyway, since the street is the normal point of view from where you watch sky scrapers, to make such images still interesting you should find really beautiful or anyway surprising buildings.

As usual, let's take a look at what Instagrammers have to say about this.

And these are my own 2c.

Stairs

What can give more perspective, sense of direction, repeating patterns and contrasts like beautiful stairs? ...or just any stairs?
This is why other very common subjects that are centered on perspective are stairs.

Instagram is full of images of beautiful stairs, or even normal underground stairs, usually captured from the bottom up but also the other way around.
People walking on the stairs usually add meaning and interest to these images.

Stairs also feature another important black and white photography element: repeating patterns. In addition to that, the light/dark contrast of stair steps provide even more visual impact.

It shouldn't surprise then that stairs are a so common subject in street photography, even because stairs are always found in metro stations, which themselves are one of the most captured subjects in this art (we'll see about that in the next post).

As usual, let's take a look at what Instagrammers have to say about this.

And this is my own contribution.

Point of view

Perspective is also about showing things or places from unusual, maybe odd points of view, providing a different story to the observer than what she's used to.

The following examples show how changing the point of view can turn an otherwise ordinary subject into a very interesting one.

And this is my own interpretation of this element.

In the next post, we'll explore reflections as a way to challenge the observer and make her question about what she's seeing.