Stairs
Steps. Staircase. Flight of steps. Set of Steps. Those things we use to walk from one level of a building or landscape to another. They are as varied as their intended uses. They can be grand with a short rise and a long run. They can be steep with a greater rise and narrow run, or they can have their rise and run be equal. However they are made we use them to get to a higher or lower level.
Fredrick Evans
My two favorite photographers Fredrick Evans and Eugene Atget both photographed stairs frequently. Evans photographed and re-photographed the steps leading to the Chapter House in Wells Cathedral. I have seen at least three variations. The famous version was shot in 1903, but he photographed these steps several times in earlier years.
Eugene Atget
I have no idea how many different staircases Atget photographed around Paris during his career. I know he photographed the steps and staircases in and around Versailles, city steps, and staircases in homes and apartment buildings.
I grew up in a single level ranch style house. Most of my friends’ houses were also single level. There were very few public buildings that had staircases; I grew up in the shopping center era where everything was on one floor. And I thought anyone who had a staircase in his or her house was lucky.
Evans and Atget inspired me to look at steps, stairs, and staircases as photographic opportunities. And I have photographed them wherever I find them. During the Spirit of Structure Workshop last year we visited several locations that had staircases. That is where I could be found, at, around or under these staircases.
Perhaps my goal is to make one photograph of a staircase as wonderful as Fredrick Evans Sea of Steps.
