Homage to Mondrian Wendy North

MARCUS SCOTT-TAGGART AWARD

Marcus Scott-Taggart

If one was to categorise this photograph it would fit comfortably into an Architectural/Engineering group but only if you called on the most basic identities of the two elements with which Wendy has created this design. The title suggests that it is the geometric, coloured rectangles of the building that caught her attention but, for me, the disproportionate scale of the streetlamp towering threateningly, or with curiosity, over the building adds a lot more opportunity for further interpretation. If I have any criticism at all, and it does not undermine my other reasons for choosing this, it is that I feel the darkening of the sky top left is a little overdone. While vignetting that corner does lend weight to the feeling of the streetlamp leaning over the building, once noticed, it is a more dramatic effect than is needed. What the photograph does highlight is Wendy’s ability to see past the mundane and formulate a design with meaning beyond the obvious by choosing carefully her camera’s viewpoint. That is a talent, in my opinion, more valuable than technical excellence especially now as so many of the procedural demands can be supported by the equipment.