Here are some iPhone pictures taken in the early spring in First Canadian Place in Toronto. No one pays attention to an iPhone picture-taker, so it is the camera for candid shots in the City.
What fascinates me is the reversal of backgrounds and foregrounds in our current social environment. Instead of the background being dark and non-descript with the people standing out like jewels, it is the reverse. Most people are dressed in black and the building walls and floors are polished marble and gleam with light and reflections.
When did this happen that the negative space - the background - the canvas took over? What I see are shadow shapes on the canvas, and it is interesting to capture this sense.
I pursued this line of thinking and read about Gestalt Theory and Visual Perception here. While I found it fascinating, it didn't seem to relate until the principle of 'focal points'.
"The principle of focal points likely arises out of our need to quickly identify the unknown to alert us to potential danger." So everyone would be in dark clothes to fit in.
It is the case that the dominant colour for clothing is black. I found this site - The Color Black. It says that the colour black represents mystery and power and control. Perhaps our pictures are a representation of the struggle for dominance between the individual and large-city structures.
