Steidlville

Annabel Elston’s photographs reveal a shadowy truth, where private moments appear in public places. While the photographs share ephemeral emotions, they also portray a photographer walking among the streets, straying from one side to the other, almost as invisible as a ghost. The expressions stamped on faces appear transcendental, but the emotions are concrete. Empathy is a useful trait for a street photographer to possess. The ability to recognize and identify the joy or disenchantment of others prepares the street photographer to shape a picture. Working in this manner, the photographer sees the world constructed not with walls, pavement or buildings but built with an architecture of emotions. In photography it is clear that a person with a camera aimed at another is never simply observing but connecting to the subject as well. Elston gives us proximity beyond mere observation and we become immersed in the subject’s thoughts and decisions. The strangers are seductive and their anonymity enviable. Through the photographer we politely invade sleeping thoughts ready to rise.