Monday, October 07, 2013

City Photographs: Cafes And People

Over the summer I took a slew of photographs and uploaded them to my computer, but had no idea what I was going to do with them.

You know how that is.

Then over the weekend, I decided to narrow some of the photos into two categories (cafes and people) and post them.

As you know, I adore photographs with people in them because they add a certain energy by telling a story within an image. People in photographs add human action and emotion, almost like a moving picture that has been captured in a freeze frame. And in urban life, you see all kinds of human action and emotion. Some of it makes you smile and see the joy in life; some of it makes you see the strangeness of some characters; some of it also makes you see the hardships that many people go through.

Urban life can be extreme in many ways. But that’s why I choose to live in a city, because it’s a reality reminder to me that life can often be full of extremes and differences.

City life keeps me on my toes by forcing me to interact with life and the people in it.

Granted, some of the things you see in a city can be hard to look at because they are not always pretty.

But that’s life anyway, isn’t it?

Life is not always pretty.

Yet it is within the un-pretty and the extremes, that I seem to learn the most. 

I can be an extreme person myself yet, oddly enough living in an extreme environment teaches me to find a balance within myself.

City life can be a very fascinating and sobering human experience because it's both beautiful and raw; all going on simultaneously, right out there on the streets. 

And I LOVE it.

Please enjoy...

When I first moved back to Philadelphia, I lived on Spruce Street, where this charming cafe sits.

This cafe is also on Spruce Street.

A cafe off Rittenhouse Square.

I saw these two gentlemen playing chess one afternoon during the summer and couldn't resist taking this photo because of how intently they were playing. They were in their own world.

Construction men at work in Old City, Philadelphia.

This next series of photos I took on Walnut Street, where I saw this homeless gentleman sitting there eating his lunch.

A newlywed couple getting ready to have their photographs taken in Washington Square Park.

I saw this guy sitting on the window ledge of his apartment smoking a cigarette. I used the zoom lens on my camera to get this shot, but he was VERY high from the ground. YIKES!

I see this gentleman a lot in the park where I sit. I'm not sure what his physical condition is, but he enjoys spending time in the park; taking in the sun while reading. We've said hello to each other on occasion. He's a very sweet man; always smiling.

And lastly, I took this photograph of a photographer taking a photograph.

Happy Monday everyone!