35mm · Film photography · Photography

Houses, benches, and bins. Why I photograph the mundane.

Three shots today which are typical of my approach to photography.

White house

I might have said this before, but in case not, one of my favourite photography quotes is from New York street photographer, Garry Winogrand. I’ll paraphrase because I can’t remember if this is the exact quote (he’s recorded as saying a similar thing on many occasions), but it goes like:

I photograph things because I want to see what they look like when photographed“.

This is pretty much my entire photographic ethos. There’s something slightly removed from reality in a photograph. They’re a moment in time and limited by the camera, lens, and recording medium in a way that our usual eye/brain observations are not. Photographs are stripped of movement, or the wider environment, of the sounds and smells that were present when they were taken. I look at a photograph of a scene or object in a way that I don’t if I’m physically present and, despite the removal of so much sensory information, there is something magical about that still image.

Empty bench

The three pictures shared here today are like that for me. I doubt many would travel especially to see these things. They’re ordinary. But they’re also interesting. Interesting enough for some reason for me to press the shutter button.

Bins

Olympus 35 RC & Fuji Superia 100 (expired 2008). Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.

Taken on 2 October 2025

One thought on “Houses, benches, and bins. Why I photograph the mundane.

  1. I pretty much agree with you and Winogrand on this – chunks and pieces of things, a design element in the photo and how does it look in a photo? I like the austerity of these in particular and the design of vertical and horizontal.

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