Benefit Street

Author's Comments

Benefit Street is a slow walk, not a quick shoot. The buildings are close together and the street is narrow, which means the light is constantly being filtered, broken, and handed off from one facade to the next as the morning moves. I find the hour just after sunrise the most useful, when the eastern light reaches the upper stories first and the brick sidewalks are still in shadow. The contrast does the composition for you. The section between Power and Transit is where I spend most of my time. The doorways here are the real subject - fan lights, side lights, the particular geometry of a Federal entrance done well and kept up for two centuries. A short telephoto compresses the row in a way that feels honest to how the street actually reads when you walk it, the houses leaning slightly into each other, the gas lamps punctuating the rhythm. A wide lens is harder to use here than you would think. The street is too tight, and you end up with too much sky. Fall is the season I keep returning for. The light gets longer and the trees that line parts of the street start to throw color against the painted clapboard, and the whole street takes on a quality that is hard to describe without sounding sentimental. Spring is gentler. Summer is fine but the foliage hides too many of the facades. Whatever you bring, bring time. This is not a street that gives up its best photographs in twenty minutes.

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