Placing the Place

What’s the point in beautifully lit ‘sense of place’ photos when all the ‘action’ photographs take place under cover of night? Why do I go out each twilight attempting to capture the essence of the city when the rest of my schedule takes me other places? Even if we find a contextual reason to include these photos, does having verticals really matter?

The photos I make in the moment, trying to match the mood and color of the action shots, end up like the frame below. To me the image is successful in that it feels the way Nicollet Mall felt that night. However, I anticipate my cohort gravitating toward the ‘pretty’ frames, those matching neither the aesthetic nor the tone of the story.