Sooner or later, all of us who love street photography will receive a copy of Street Photography Now. The gift brought a smile to my face and sparked curiosity in the pages: Alexey Titarenko. His series “ City of Shadows” captivated me. It is certainly not what one would call classic street photography; in fact, the book often skirts the boundary of the classic, even quoting the famous line “reality can only be explained through fiction,” which I first heard from my most important influence, Krzysztof Kieślowski.
Normally street photography freezes the instant, but Titarenko freezes the soul of cities. His photos stayed in my mind, and after resolving technical details and slightly changing the orientation, I took my first steps.
The first difference is an infrared filter. Capturing the invisible seduces me, but it still doesn’t convince me, because the false colors that are usually produced from infrared in RGB shots don’t appeal to me, and black and white is not my thing. I will do more sessions with neutral filters to solve the color issue, but Titarenko has encouraged me to play with street photography in a different way than I am used to.
Technical data:
- Camera: Nikon D7000
- Lens: Nikkor 16‑85mm f/3.5 – 5.6 VR
- Infrared filter: Hoya R72
- Exposure: 20 or 30 seconds
- Aperture: f/9 or f/11
- ISO: 100
- Post‑processing: Lightroom, black and white with a red filter
Originally published on Calle 35