Sarasota, Burns Court, Pink House
"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them."
— Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
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The historic cottages in this little corner of Sarasota are an anomaly They are small, quaint, colorful, and simple, in stark contrast to the sleek, white, luxury condominium towers that have proliferated in the neighborhood. I love to visit here and photograph the brightly painted buildings. One day, we happened to park across the street from this pink house. The pastel colors, blue sky and small palm seemed almost Caribbean, reminding me of those pre-pandemic days when we could take a cruise or a plane to the islands.
The first of my photos failed to convey this feeling; it needed a figure. Time for a muse, particularly one who’s clothes happen to match. After a few attempts, I asked her to lean against the palm and everything fell into place. Later, I cropped the image retaining some elements and removing others such as the buildings in the background. From then on, I enjoyed looking at this image, but didn’t really understand why.
One day I emailed the photo to a friend who is a professor of design and architecture. This is how he responded:
This is a nice photo! I will do my best to give a critique based on Gestalt perception… The colors are very Caribbean so that makes it emotionally interesting. Goldie’s clothes and the palm tree also reinforce the Caribbean theme. Formally, the large rectangle above the door (signboard?) and the grey sidewalk frame the scene and create a strong horizontal that counters the vertical of Goldie and the tree. So, there is both visual tension and balance. The white skirt, door, window, and roof edge tie the disparate parts together. If they were different colors, it would not work at all. Finally, the lack of strong shadows flattens the image so it all blends together in one plane, even though it isn’t. Essentially, it simplifies the composition and minimalizes the elements. Without Goldie the image may not be as interesting because the palm tree is too thin to sustain that tension. The signboard is a bit heavy visually. If it were saturated yellow or had printing on it, it probably would dominate the composition…Try manipulating the photo to see what would happen if you changed elements. I think it works so well because you cannot change anything very much without upsetting the balance and losing the regional imagery.
My friend’s response was fascinating, He had the training and visual literacy to give a concise analysis of a composition that I had created utilizing intuition alone. Without any formal training, experience had guided me. John Dewey the great American philosopher and educator was a strong proponent of “learning by doing” as was Richard Benson, photographer, printer, and dean of the school of art at Yale. Street photography cannot be studied from books and courses alone. It requires practice – the proverbial 10,000 hours of it.
A few months later, I revisited the location with a group of students on a photo walk only to encounter a large Trump sign in the door. The spell was broken.
