A musing on contrast and change

A couple more images from my most recent trip to Malta. Amazingly I’ve nearly caught up with processing of these – not the greatest turnaround time as they were made nearly 6 weeks ago but as it was a speculative trip and no client on my back desperate for them, I can afford to take my time with them and spend a little more time on the processing – at least that’s the theory. In practice they just end up getting sidelined……

Typical street scene in Valletta, Malta (Click to view larger)

The image above, from memory was taken on the same street as this one, but for this image I just wanted to capture the chaotic feel of the plethora of bay windows. Coming from the UK where the buildings and streets are so relatively ordered and construction is so rigidly controlled, to see scenes like this almost throws me into panic mode. Maybe I have a bit of an obsessive-compulsive slight to my character and I do kind of crave order so when I am presented with a visual such as this I must make a photograph of it. Also I suppose there is a degree of contrast and dissimilarity to what I’m used to here which is another compelling reason for me to hit the shutter button. As with any other photographer, I always find it easier to make photographs of “things” that are different to what I’m used to seeing. The most difficult place for me to make an inspiring image is in my own back yard so to speak. Change and departure are easy. Routine and similarity are so much harder to do. Is that one of the reasons I love travel photography? Because it’s easier, artistically speaking? Possibly.

Below Mediterranean Street on the outskirts of Valletta Harbour (Click for larger)

To see more of these latest images, swing by the gallery here.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 22nd, 2011 at 11:43 am. It is filed under Photographs, Travel and tagged with malta, street photography, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.