 |
| Health Sciences Entrance. With all the reflections and directionality, it feels Escher-esque to me. |
Winter is settling in slowly this year. No rush. As one of the millions on the Canadian prairie who wondered last year where all the sun was, it was quite a thrill to be walking around mid November with just a t-shirt, a tripod and my camera.
 |
| New Wing of Dentistry |
 |
| Old Dentistry/ Health Sciences |
You would think that I would be sick to death of stairs right now, but the truth is that my fascination is growing ever deeper. When I did up my last post I spent some time looking through old photos that I had of campus stairs to include. It reminded me two things: firstly, despite the simple going up and down thing they have going, there is great variety in stair design and secondly, my photographic eye has come a long way in a few years.
So, I decided to revisit some of my favourites and see how many ways I could skin the same cat, so to speak. Stairs are stairs after all, but with all the architectural variety surrounding and suffusing them, perhaps I could elevate (smirk) their basic utility into something more artistic.
The contrasts are quite startling. These first three staircases are all in the same building complex. Indeed, the floating glass and granite stairs and the ancient peeling paint staircase are only about a 10 second walk apart.
Some staircases are pretty boring when taken at face value. The stairs exiting the Arts Tunnel are quite humdrum, but the photo below is helped out by a cool split rail that dominates the scene and gives it a sense of action. I chose to make this photo black and white because of all the competing colours in student apparel were pulling focus from the
important subject ;)
 |
| Stairs which replace the old Arts Escalators (which were broken half the time anyway) |
 |
| Main Library with art on the walls |
 |
| Utilitarian, Dark with a wicked Echo...o...o... |
Just down the tunnel from the above picture is The Murray Building which functions as the main library for the U of S. There, too, were 3 distinct types of stairs. A broad, high traffic, central stairwell, a spartan "fire exit" stairwell, and an oddly shaped spiral that ascends the North Wing.
 |
| Triangular Spiral |
 |
| Bright light is CRITICAL to my success |
 |
| The fabled (yet quite unattractive) 11th floor |
I suppose it would be an oversight not to include at least a couple of photos from the stairwell that I am forever Sisyphus-ing my way up. You've read this far, so here you go.
This stair business is far from over. I have plans to traverse the campus finding great variety in staircases wherever I go. You can count on me. The best news about it is that wherever I go, you go. Aren't you just lucky ;)
Here is my
Stair Photo Album. I'll keep you updated as I add to it.
Comments