Composition 404

This is my take on Robert Rauschenberg and his use of steps in a series of photographs that he took in 1952.  The Rauschenberg series was concerned with photographs representing the recording of moments in time harking back to "Man Running" by Eadweard Muybridge in 1887.
However my interest is different to Rauschenberg's. What I found intriguing about his original photographs was less about the sequence of movement and more about what was outside the frame. The figure of a man standing is only partly seen as he descends a series of monumental looking stone steps.
A figure moving out of one side of the frame can appear to be a missed opportunity, highlighting the fact that the subject has eluded the photographer. Again I find this interesting in what it suggests. Not only is the so-called "active space" for the moving figure to inhabit missing, the figure itself is peripheral to whole photograph. What happens next is elsewhere.

I found a set of steps steep enough for what I had in mind at an art gallery in London. In setting up this shot timing proved to be important. This was because I also wanted my subject to be slightly out of focus, a further refinement to the idea of escaping the shot. My point of focus was someone at the top of the steps which I had to wait for and then cue my subject to begin his descent. In this case it was Mr C. who agreed to be escaping figure. Perhaps fitting in that Mr C is a much better photographer than me and also capable of that amazing alchemy - that is, on occasion being paid for his photographic endeavours. My endeavour: a photograph of a photographer escaping the shot. It is a quiet day at the gallery so I have to wait for a while and Mr C becomes slightly impatient as he checks his phone. As people appear at the top of the steps I nod to Mr C and he begins his hurried descent into the future. As I listen to his echoing footsteps I imagine him sailing to the edge of the world, or sitting in sorrowful silence, or finding his heart's desire or simply pausing to wonder: what happens next?