photography parallels.

London Street, gelatin silver print, Robert Frank, 1951

In this foggy London street scene Robert Frank aligns a number of seemingly unrelated elements into a coherent photograph.  The composition is balanced as the opened door of the hearse directs your eye to the distance where a girl who seems frantic is chasing after something--or being chased by something.  The running child is reflected in the wet pavement while in the foreground the window of the open door of the hearse frames the hazy form of a man, who could be a garbage collector.  The solid black bulk of the vehicle is contrasted by the soft grays of the houses fading almost to white in the distance.  The closer your view gets to the focal point the scene becomes ambiguous because of fog.  It gives an eerie, uncomfortable feeling--you're not sure if the girl is safe because you don't know what's next, or coming around the corner.

Mystery and Melancholy of a Street, oil on canvas, Giorgio de Chirico, 1914

Almost exactly the same, London Street could be a mirror image of Giorgio de Chirico's Mystery and Melancholy of a Street.  One could almost agree Frank was photographing the same street a mere 37yrs later.  With similar compositions de Chirico's painting gives the same creepy, indefinite feeling as the girl is running directly toward the mysterious shadow in the distance.  Both works give perfect examples of linear perspective, and how accurate perspective can add an emotion to an artwork.

London Street is located at the Victoria & Albert Museum  in London, England and Frank is a Swiss-American photographer.  Mystery and Melancholy of a Street is currently in a private collection and de Chirico was a Greek-born, Italian Surrealist.

xo.rae.