'Shapes of San Francisco' Project Paints the Bay Area in Black and White

'Shapes of San Francisco' Project Paints the Bay Area in Black and White

Black and white photography is an interesting thing; it can be used to enhance beautiful images or hide the flaws of mediocre ones. The best black and white photos are done with intention and an understanding of how the lack of color affects a viewer's perception of an image. San Francisco based creative Burton Rast is currently putting that understanding on display with his ongoing 100 image project highlighting the uniqueness of the buildings found in the City by the Bay.

By utilizing black and white, Rast hyper-focuses on the details of the buildings he shoots. The hard lighting and deep shadows create a heavy contrast that completely locks the eye in and invites you to explore every detail.

When I think of architecture in San Francisco, the first thing I think of is colorful homes (due in no small part I'm sure to growing up watching Full House), so it's incredibly interesting to me to see the colors stripped away like this and the emphasis placed on the design elements of each building.

Some of my favorite shots in the series so far are the ones where Rast integrates harsh shadows to create new angles and dimensions on the buildings. The shadows become an equally important part of the photo's composition as the highlighted areas showing detail.

Burton is just now reaching the halfway point of his project so there are still plenty more of these images to come over the next couple of months. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that he eventually gathers all of these images into a book because I imagine they would look even more stellar in print. Check out more of the series below, and give Burton Rast a follow on Instagram to see his latest updates.

Andrew Strother's picture

Andrew is a professional photographer based in Houston, Texas. Texas is better than all other states including Canada.

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1 Comment

Not bad it's a pretty neat idea.