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Down the Corridor
23 January 2024
We were walking out of the hospital a while ago when we looked down a corridor that did not lead to the exit and saw through a window San Francisco with the Golden Gate Bridge towers in the background.
Hallway. iPhone 15 Pro Max, 15.7mm and f28 at1/120 second and ISO 64. Processed in Adobe Camera Raw.
It was such an unlikely sight that we stopped, took out our iPhone and captured the image.
Hospitals in general are rather sparsely decorated. Rugs cannot be cleaned as well as linoleum. Chairs tend not to be upholstered for the same reason. Counters are not porous.
Many hospitals compensate, perhaps, by making an effort to hang wall art, particularly that of their employees but often work from established artists as well. It tends, we suspect, to be ignored in the same way a street poster doesn't get much attention as you run to catch a bus in driving rain. Other priorities.
But this scene struck us as life imitating art. The bridge at the end of the corridor that was not an exit.
As a metaphor, that would do.
As an image, it took some work, though. The window functioned as a filter, giving the outdoor scene a color cast, while the fluorescent lighting in the hall cast its green pall over the shiny floors.
For a while, we thought our best bet would be to turn it into a monochrome image. But the trouble with that approach was simply that what had caught our eye (and would maybe catch yours) was the International Orange of the bridge towers.
So we tried to neutralize the hallway and minimize the color cast from the window.
At our usual thumbnail size it may be hard to appreciate the image, so we're including an enlargement.