Photo Corners headlinesarchivemikepasini.com
A S C R A P B O O K O F S O L U T I O N S F O R T H E P H O T O G R A P H E R
Enhancing the enjoyment of taking pictures with news that matters, features that entertain and images that delight. Published frequently.
Youth Must Be Served
25 April 2022
We walked north on Hyde St. for our Friday Slide Show but we walk back south on Leavenworth. We scrupulously did not include any of those photos in the slide show, a conceit being a conceit.
A Rope. Nikon D300 with 18-200mm Nikkor at 70mm (105mm equivalent), f11, 1.60 second and ISO 200. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
But the last photo we took on our walk puzzled us. This was it. And the puzzle was simple to explain what that rope was doing there on that gated entrance.
We enlarged the image sufficiently to read the labels on the three buttons. They were the addresses of the three flats in the building.
Adjacent to the buttons is the latch with a key lock and a handle pull. There is a lockbox below that with the 24-hour mobile locksmith's number.
And then there is that rope tied to the gate above the latch that runs quite a long way down. Well over three feet.
We'll give you a minute.
Time's up. Our guess is that an elderly relative in the building is charged with caring for a child whose parents are away all day at work. They are not easily able to descend the stairs to let the child in after school. And the child is not yet tall enough to reach the handle pull when they are buzzed in.
But they can open the gate by pulling on the rope when they hear the buzzer.
What about the front door? That, it's more likely, the child can reach.
This has such a monochrome palette that you might wonder why not do it in black and white. But that would obscure the rope, which is subject of the image, and along with the key lock that echoes it, the only objects with any color.
As a color image, the rope is emphasized. Your attention is drawn to it. You wonder what it's doing there.
The three buttons provide a clue, too. They suggest there are lots of stairs to climb in this building. Stairs: infirmity. Rope: accommodation. Youth must be served.
And that's the story this image tells.