So I once posted this shot in another (mostly digital) forum, and their solution was to straighten it out and remove the streetlamp via photoshop. Funny, those were two of the things I liked about the image. ;)
If I were going for tension, I would go for more diagonals.
I shoot large format and find unstraight things bothersome unless they are so much so as to be apparently a compositional decision on the part of the photographer.
Tough to get rid of the streetlamp since the negative is 35 mm and retouching is tough on a small negative.
I would probably also pump the contrast up in printing this since the white and black windows are such a minor part of the image as to be unnoticeable and the image as a whole looks flat on my monitor...too much middle gray tone. More contrast would give more contrast in these middle tonal regions.
I believe that the art of photography is best complimented with simplicity. leave the street lamp. Being a large format shoot that unsquare line would render this an unprintable negative, but then again one is an accident, 10 are a series, and a hundred are a style.
The spuratic blacks and isolated whites create an interesting flow. I feel The street strengthens the composition by breaking up the monotony of the repetitive forms.
I wager that the streetlamp is left intentionally, and so it should be. You have a great minimalist composition there, and I suppose if you wanted to alter it in any way, I would perhaps maximize the leaning effect by angling the camera, and change position to move the streetlamp a little bit away from the window, so that it is more visible. But that's me.
I simply get caught up looking at all the windows as I might view an image of a crowd of people ..looking intently at each face(window) for a clue about the individuals charecter...in this context this image is captivating and sucessful...one could actually have fun trying to match equivalent pairs...I like it...for me the street lamp needs to stay...it somehow helps...
With all the windows being the same, I was looking for one that had something different about it. E.g., a person looking out or drapes flapping in the wind. The streetlamp almost gives that point of interest I was looking for but it's too small and unnoticeable in the frame. I would include more of it.
Thank you for sharing.
i LOVE this!
when i looked at the thumbnail ( thank you random pictures! )
i thought this was a contact sheet, and then i see it is just
an array of windows, some open, some shut,
some shaded, some not.
the light post and the lean, are perfect!
they anchor the whole image.