Slow Down to See More

The anti photo-walk

In 1974, George Perec sat down at a cafe with his notebook and wrote An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris. Over the course of three days, he tried to record everything happening in front of him in a single urban square. His notes appear as short, almost photographic, entries that capture what he sees happening in front of him in real time: buses arriving and leaving, people crossing the street, the weather… Nothing very exciting but that’s the whole point.

Perec knew that you can’t truly “exhaust” a place, he admits that in his title. There’s too much happening and changing to capture it all. But even as an impossible task the experiment reveals a way of seeing that feels surprisingly close to street photography. What matters isn’t completeness but observing closely. We can borrow a few ideas from Perec to apply to photography: paying attention to the mundance and staying still longer to notice more. Perhaps Perec’s text is street photography without the camera.

The kinds of things he focuses on mirror what street photographers often search for: ordinary moments that somehow represent a place and time. Both pay attention to the everyday actions that define the life of a city.

My default mode when I’m out shooting is to walk. They don’t call it a photo walk for nothing: movement feels productive and it always feels like the next keeper is a few steps away. If I walk just a little bit more, then maybe I will stumble on a decisive moment unfolding. What if we followed Perec’s example and stayed still a bit longer. Maybe not three days in the same spot, but long enough to start noticing the more subtle patterns, gestures, and textures.

I did my own attempt at exhausting a place in Barcelona. I chose a random square and spent more time in that defined block than I normally would on a photo walk. I looked like a weirdo to others who saw me walk in circles around the block with a camera but I think the results are interesting.

My walking box - roughly 50m by 15m

Here are a few of the shots I took from the box.

Like street photography, Perec’s book is an invitation for us to look differently, to remind us that the extraordinary is hidden in the ordinary if only we learn to notice it. By slowing down and observing more deeply, we start noticing more of the small meaningful moments constantly unfolding around us.

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