I’m always impressed by photographers who manage to include signs in photographs in a way which complements the scene being photographed, without detracting the attention of the viewer from the rest of the image. The addition of text to a photograph can add an interesting dimension to a shot, helping to tell the story, or adding humour.
A photography instructor – my first, in fact – by the name of David Gray, who ran a Digital Photography course in Dublin Camera Club when I completed it a few years ago, captured a photograph on Grafton Street in Dublin which was a perfect example of the mastery of using a sign around which to build an image. I have searched for the image online but to no avail, so you’ll have to make do with a description of it – it featured a Today FM advert on one of those wall-mounted ashtrays that became popular outside pubs after the introduction of the smoking ban. The advert read: “Does my butt look big in this?” and David had composed his shot with that sign at the left of frame, in focus, and with the right of frame taken up by a view down Grafton Street, thrown out of focus, but clearly showing a rear view of two not-so-petite women. The photograph made me laugh, and I wondered had the photographer seen the sign and stood and waited for the right scene to complement it, or had the good fortune to see the sign and the women at the same time.
More recently, in the camera club a new member showed an image of a man working on a dock alongside some oil drums bearing a sign that read “No smoking, flammable material” (or something along those lines) as he smoked a cigarette.
When I photographed the sign on the door of the Garden of Exile in the Judische Museum in Berlin (before finding out what my name looked like in Hebrew), I was struck by the ominous nature of the sign – the dangers lurking in the Garden of Exile were no more serious than wet cobble stones that might be slippy, but given the general mood you found yourself in as you viewed the exhibits in the museum, which told a story of far greater dangers in Germany’s past, the warning seemed far more serious.
I composed the shot in quite a simple manner, with it centred in the frame, and using the concept of negative space to isolate it from the background. Focus was made easier by doing this as the camera’s autofocus was able to lock on to the lettering, and the rain on the glass, which kept me from cropping in too tightly on the words, acts as a second element of interest in the frame, while the inclusion of the German writing also adds context.
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