Ode to Crowds

I find crowds irresistible, and I’m not alone in this. Photographers have been drawn to large groups of people since the invention of film fast enough to capture them, and arguably long before that. Consider Daguerre’s photograph of the Bouldevard du Temple (1839), the first ever cityscape. Due to the five-minute exposure time, only one figure is visible: a man rendered immobile by a shoe polishing. Upon seeing this photograph for the first time, everyone always asks the same question. Where are all the people? The omission is unsettling, at odds with our intuitive understanding of photographs.

Crowds present the perfect challenge. Observe the ever-shifting mass of human faces and bodies, find the moment of perfect alignment, and pluck it out of time. Like any worthwhile pursuit, the perfect crowd photo is an impossible grail. But what could be more fun to chase?

This portfolio is not a formal project. It’s merely an ode to crowds.