Arthur Meyerson: Angle of View
Equipment matters.
Sure, cameras and lenses are tools, and it's the vision and skill of the photographer that makes the image work, but there are lots of photos that simply wouldn't work as well, if at all, if the right lens hadn't been chosen.
Commercial and location photographer Arthur Meyerson took this image while on a family vacation in New York City. "We decided to take the kids out to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island," Arthur says, "and there was a very long line to get into the statue. The kids were getting restless and looking for something else to do. They started climbing the wall at the base of the statue, and I began taking pictures. I had the 20-35mm zoom on the F100 and got a lot of frames, but this one, of my son, Dylan, is the best."
Arthur, who teaches a photography workshop called The Color of Light in the U.S. as well as in other countries, always cautions workshop students about getting carried away when using wide-angle lenses. "In some cases, the exaggerated view can work against you, but here the wide-angle view was very effective. He's not that far up the wall, maybe two to three feet off the ground, with ground level right at the bottom of the frame. But that lens seems to suggest a longer, higher climb, and it gives the image both a symbolic and surreal look. And the fact that his arm reaching up almost mimics the statue's reach makes it all the better."
