Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).
I find that taking a photograph of public art can sometimes be a little tricky. Not that it can be tricky to actually take the photograph, or that security guards are going to chase you away, but I tend to feel that the photographer needs to add something to the frame (not literally, of course) to make an image that isn't just a photo of 'someone else's art'.
Terry Power has solved the 'photo of someone else's art' problem with his Untitled photo of Alan Chung Hung's sculpture Gate to the Northwest Passage.
Gate to the Northwest Passage is a monument to George Vancouver and was commissioned by Parks Canada in 1980. Terry has represented the sculpture in a very dignified manner - strong, vertical lines help to give the form weight, and a sense of scale (although exaggerated) is achieved with the inclusion of the human form behind. The negative space of the sculpture creates a natural frame-within-the-frame and the black & white treatment both highlights the materials of its construction and eliminates distractions. Nice tones.
I didn't know that this piece of public art was originally intended to be placed at Ferguson Point in Stanley Park, and not at Vanier Park. Read more about the work and Hung's Artist Statement here.
