Road and Street (symbols)

that's the problem of looking at a micro-slice of an apple. it looks like a micro-slice of an orange

LOL

Slow down, Norman. Macro small town. Micro Asian. A thin slice of one; a big fat slice of the other. (And we're doing this cognitively, not in-camera. Time exposure of the small town would not allow people to pile up; it would erase them altogether.) (I'm getting very hungry, for some reason.)

But they're not alike! If you find that there's nothing in common between the two street scenarios, however you slice them, then ... that's what you find. The question is open, not closed ... [as if we could close Norman!]

i agree. my comments aren't met to open or close your thought processes. i'm just hanging on.

(off to asia any minute now xxx)

plums are rude

You're safe: there are no doors on the Nighthawks café.

And, sometimes, you reach the end of one . . .

Supriyo said: ↑

can we deduce or understand a concept for which no sensory reference is available, or ever existed.

Invert that. Maybe you do that all day long; it's integral to or 'before' any other kind of perception. "The force that through the green fuse drives the flower." Maybe the "objective" part is the hard part. Or maybe not. But how would you know? Do you get sensory senses of your sensory senses? o_O

Yes, we are very good at that. Combining imagination with sensory input is integral to art. But that's how the cave dwellers interpreted the shadows as reality, and couldn't get out of that mindset. It's important to learn when to be imaginative and when to be objective.

Combining imagination with sensory input is integral to art. But that's how the cave dwellers interpreted the shadows as reality, and couldn't get out of that mindset.

I think, by the time he was writing The Republic where the cave allegory is found, Plato would have said that it was the cave dwellers lack of imagination that helped cause them to mistake the shadows for reality. It seems to me Plato would have thought that, had they used imagination in combination with reason, they could have attained knowledge of reality and not been fooled by mere shadows. Plato faulted their reliance on perception and their not using their more important (for Plato) mental capacities such as imagination and reason.

In photography, which I keep wanting to come back to, it's very often shadows which can reveal so much.

Check out mmarcotte's shadowy street in THIS THREAD. Something I notice in a lot of photos is that roads tend to be portrayed iconically and streets often more intimately.

What about roads with rails, and the dirt roads that cross them?

Check out mmarcotte's shadowy street in THIS THREAD. Something I notice in a lot of photos is that roads tend to be portrayed iconically and streets often more intimately.

Yes, I saw that before. Very nice. Also I remember this one from long time back at PN.

One reason why streets are portrayed intimately could be related to the fact that (at least in US), streets have more residential neighborhoods and pedestrian traffic compared to roads. But as far as photography goes, I think streets can be both intimate and mysterious, both welcoming and lonely. In that sense, (I am questioning myself as I write this, correct me if needed) streets have more character than roads, which are photographed mostly for their iconic or historic value.

What about roads with rails, and the dirt roads that cross them?

 

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Very nice. wish I had that in my neighborhood.

Roads offer more of an intimate experience to me than streets do and I associate images of the open road with such experiences. Who doesn't know the feeling of driving on a road alone with nothing in front of you but the great scenery while your favorite music is playing and the engine is running smoothly on cruise control. A feeling that becomes even more palpable when the sun comes down and the light changes into blue purple orange gold everything hues and that one song starts to play and everything just...clicks. It's an ephemeral feeling and you want it to last, slow it down a bit hit the brakes so that you can soak it all in but a road isn't made for standing still on and it's only when you're moving through it fast that the landscape becomes alive. In the distance things move by slowly so you let your mind linger there. A tree, a barn, an arrangement of miniature cows, a formation of clouds, the slope of a hill against that highway bridge. And then it's all gone. I had such a feeling today while driving back home from The Ardennes ( it was a holiday but I was there for work ). Made some pictures with my phone but didn't capture any of the feeling. It's a feeling - a way of being - that's too broad and too specific at the same time for it to fit in an image.

Roads, specially countryside roads can be quite intimate. When I was writing my previous comment, I was visualizing the interstate highways in LA. We go for vacation usually to some cabin in the middle of an unknown town in California, and the roads that lead to those places can feel quite special, like what you described. It is where I shot this, this and this.

Roads offer more of an intimate experience to me than streets do and I associate images of the open road with such experiences. Who doesn't know the feeling of driving on a road alone with nothing in front of you but the great scenery while your favorite music is playing and the engine is running smoothly on cruise control. A feeling that becomes even more palpable when the sun comes down and the light changes into blue purple orange gold everything hues and that one song starts to play and everything just...clicks. It's an ephemeral feeling and you want it to last, slow it down a bit hit the brakes so that you can soak it all in but a road isn't made for standing still on and it's only when you're moving through it fast that the landscape becomes alive.

That's a beautiful description; I know that feeling so well. But you've already put your finger on the problem. In photographs, I am always looking at roads, not in the experience of being on them.

Here is sculptor Tony Smith in a famous 1966 anecdote about driving the unfinished New Jersey Turnpike at night:

Streets (as opposed to roads) are a completely coded environment. Everything is coded right down to the expression on your face and the exact posture of your body. Everything is being 'read.' On the highway, by comparison, as long as you keep the vehicle between the lines, your free from codes. Sometimes I see truckers stopped on the side of the highway, getting out of their high cabs to take a pee. They are always wearing the most outlandish outfits: the kind of thing you wear at home when you're sure nobody will see you. At least they do go around to the other side of the truck to pee. Some codes persist ...

Familiar landscapes and environments can feel new too

Coming back to this discussion after being away on business travel for a few days, I am struck by the fact that this discussion has not really explored the difference between the road as a photographic subject/symbol when an image is made from "within" the road (as from the POV of the vehicle or walker), and that from a POV off of the road. Is the road or street the venue of the image? The subject? Or, perhaps, simply background. Does it provide context, or is its place in space the context? Is it changeable, or immutable? (Some of Maurizio's images come to mind.) Is the road a barrier, or a conduit? I believe the POV makes an enormous difference to the meaning and impact of an image. The challenge with road/street images is to make an image of a dynamic, active roadway from withing that roadway, without 1) being obviously constrained by being in/on a vehicle, or 2) Getting run down while dashing out to grab the shot. I recently had a run-in with law enforcement because I stopped my car in a (supposedly little-used) traffic lane and dismounted so I could grab a shot from that POV, without getting run down. The cop was rather adamant that, even in a low-traffic situation, it was unacceptable to block traffic in the interest of art. Who would'a thought? Perhaps this is why so many of our "in the road" images are of empty or near-empty roads, while busy streets and highways are most often seen from outside the road proper. Sometimes we encounter an unusual intersection of circumstance and perspective. This image creates what I hope is a rather unique opportunity for the viewer to find himself/herself as both a participant and observer:

Even as the photographer, I have a hard time saying what role the road itself plays, because it is so integral to this image. While the image contains many elements and a multitude of subjects/objects, I believe it is the road that gives the image its sense of place and meaning. None of the rest would exist absent the road. I also captured some views from off the side of the road, but they were just snaps of a traffic jam from the POV of a disinterested observer.

Michael, I really like your image. It feels very familiar to me.

My own image of the traffic jam has an interesting backstory. My passenger, who was from Georgia, commented repeatedly that it would not have occurred to him or to others of his acquaintance to get out of their cars, explore, or socialize in the face of this event. I wonder how those kinds of social proclivities impact how we interpret these images?

"Allen!! Were you lost? Is that you? ... Next thing you'll be up the Himalayas" Julie.

Yes, that's me and a bit lost and cold....having an adventure...sort of like Bilbo being dragged out of his cozy little world. Interested in having a adventure in Peru. Folk are so different there.

Anyway, all this road stuff ...dead animals and folk crossing them...there,symbols of death.

What about lost and forgotten paths? There lies a mystery of why and where they journey...and who and what journeyed on those paths.

Symbols of mystery and imagination.

And you never know who or what you might encounter on these little lost paths.

.

dust on a windshield

last time i posted an image like that some smart alec said my sensor needed cleaning

a lot of merkans are keen on undulating roads. up, down, up, down etc.

i prefer the bleakness of vanishing points.