Los Angeles-based photographer Autumn de Wilde shares her secrets on finding new ways of looking at familiar spaces and places in Rookie Mag:
I am a photographer. In my search for found backdrops and interesting locations over the years, I have dissected Los Angeles. Over and over I look at the streets, the signs, the new and the old buildings. Every day I look for something I may have overlooked. In L.A., the beautiful and the ugly are spread out before you like an enormous garage sale. If you are curious about becoming a photographer, or you just like to take pictures, I’m writing this to remind you that you will never know your city. You will develop patterns, and like a well-behaved racehorse you will go round and round your designated track, but I want you to look sideways and upside down. I want you to find the secret life of the landscape of your city.
This was such a helpful article, because my inclination is to always go somewhere new, to ride the train to a stop I’ve never gotten off at before, and take photos in places that I’m completely unfamiliar with. So it was interesting to think of what I could do in places that I am very familiar with and push myself to see things in new angles and new lights. Perhaps I’ll do that on my forty-five minute walk home from work one day this week.
Photo credit: Autumn de Wilde
Danielle Scruggs is a photographer and writer currently living and working in Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md. Her work has been exhibited in Baltimore and Brooklyn and published by The Washington Post, Stop Smiling magazine, FILE magazine, and F-Stop Magazine. Scruggs holds an M.A. in Digital Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a B.A. in Journalism from Howard University. She is still very much in love with Charm City, albeit from a distance.