Selected Excellence: St. Paul's Halo

(Courtesy and copyright of Paulyrichard.  Taken with GX200)

This is one of Paul's many intriguing works which can be found in his florilegium at Flickr. This shot caught my eye because of the photographer's unique treatment of the St. Paul's dome: its usual (or somewhat dutiful) position should be on the upper part of a photo, presumably giving the viewers a sense of solemnity and enormity, about which I would write a point or two later. Here, the photographer's special viewpoint causes the viewers to stop, look and think, the three essential responses that a great photo will attract. But a successful shot takes more than just that.

More often than not, a good shot possesses a message (goal) to give substance to the treatment (means) bestowed on it. The photographer does not do the tricks just for the sake of being unique, but for a purpose. The title of this photo is "St. Paul's Halo". But, where is the halo? First, instead of being at the usual dutiful position in the photo, the dome descends to the lower part. Now, instead of a regular circular halo supposedly right above the dome, there are two rectangular reflective surfaces on both sides. (The photographer is probably refering to the dome itself; then what a halo it is being squelched!) The existence of the cathedral hinges on the person or machine which decides when to close the doors (presumably it is shot through the space between the doors). At first glance, it seems that the photographer has given a sacred sort of atmosphere to the photo. But by looking more closely, the viewers would discover that it is full of contrasts and sarcarsm, with or without an intent, of the photographer: the survival of the cathedral is important on the surface and between a narrow space, hence the values that it represents.

Let's go back to what I called the dutiful postion. In a lot of photos and movies I have seen which showed the imperial houses of ancient Chinese emperors, most photographers also dutifully placed the houses so that the tops were at four-third up from the bottom of the shots. Most of the photos were taken through the space between some foreground, which is a standard technique to give viewers a sense of a prospect, with the foreground usually being the doors. These photos justifiably depict a solemn place that the viewers have to visually hide behind something (the door, for example) to get a glimsp of. With such images in mind, I have found the St. Paul’s Halo even more interestingly unconventional.

Surely, I can write more about this photo. Take for example, Paul being an Englishman has subconsciously given a taste of essential western culture in the shot, which is the concept of symmetry (an evidence is that the architect of St. Paul's, Christopher Wren, once said that natual beauty came from anything being identical and proportional). In the oriental cultures, for sure for the Chinese, balance preponderates over symmetry. But this is a quite different topic.

All in all, the special quality about a shot does not only reflect in its good composition and technicality, which this photo boasts. It is more about the personality of the photographers, reflecting in a viewpoint which is obvious but generally ignored by many through the photographer's eyes at the right timing. And through such a viewpoint, messages are given in the shot which should have been obvious to but lost on the viewers. Surely, a good shot can't do without some luck. But photographers being a head above the rest have the ability to foretell when there will happen to be some "luck". St. Paul's Halo is one of those works after good calculations of the photographer.