Street Photography - Familiar Icons

Including familiar icons in your street photographs will help to make it clear where the photo was taken. It is, therefore, a good idea to include familiar icons in your travel photos. I have explained this concept in detail in my previous post called Travel vs Street Photography.

Last night I was searching for a specific photo in my archives and then came across photos of one of Brittian's most familiar icons during a visit 15 years ago.

I think you can guess it - the red telephone box.

(Side note: The day before I left for the UK, I bought my first digital camera and only had time to get myself familiar with its working on the flight to Heathrow. So these are some of my first digital photos every captured!)

This humble familiar icon was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. The red telephone box was the result of a competition in 1924 to design a kiosk that would be acceptable to the London Metropolitan Boroughs. The original wooden prototypes of the entries were later put into public service at under-cover sites around London. That of Scott's design is the only one known to survive and is still where it was originally placed, in the left entrance arch to the Royal Academy. The Post Office decided to make Scott's winning design in cast iron (Scott suggested mild steel) and to paint it red (Scott had suggested silver, with a "greeny-blue" interior) and, with other minor changes of detail, it was brought into service as the Kiosk No.2 or K2. From 1926 K2 was deployed in and around London and the K1 continued to be erected elsewhere.

The above photo of two red telephone boxes is a typical travel photo, but also very boring.

Personally, for street photography, I want a bit more. On that specific trip, I photographed three scenes with red telephone boxes, and the other two are at least more storytelling than the one above.

Being Ignored
In the photo Being Ignored we do not know what these circumstances are, but obviously nobody has any interest in the fact that this man is trying to make a phone call.

In Great Demand

Obviously, 15 years ago in London, cell phones were not yet very popular!

What made me capture the photo In Great Demand, was the fact that it seems to be the exact opposite of the Being Ignored photo.

(Side note 2: These two photos were actually taken at the same scene, not more than 20 steps apart. These telephone boxes were in front of a theatre's ticket sale office, and the ticket sales for a very popular show just opened. It just shows you how selective framing can manipulate the scene.)

The latter two photos are for me more successful as street photos as well as travel photos.

(I have posted this on my Weku blog earlier)