Street Gallery

Art photos from Scott Takeda of moments caught on the run.

  • Although this photo of campus life at CU-Boulder pre-dates my current photos by more than a decade, it has many of the same qualities - snippets of ordinary life in extraordinarily candid moments. Some have said this photo reminds them of the mid 20th Century work of the late Henri Cartier-Bresson - a photographic genius who defined capturing the "decisive moment." To be compared to the Master is a pinnacle compliment. His work impacted thousands of photographers who followed him including my own mentor Paul Moloney of the Greeley Tribune newspaper.
  • This photo gets a lot of strong reactions from people. Kind of surprising for such a simple image. I was covering a sports assignment in at the Field House at the University of Colorado when I saw how the night surroundings made everything in the old track and field arena look mysterious. Having a few spare minutes, I sat on the floor and started taking random shots. Then I saw these two guys walking along the wall with soft drink and popcorn in hand and saw my opportunity to capture their silhouette framed in the doorway. I took my shot, finished my assignment, and rushed my film back for processing. The photo editor liked this shot and printed it. I also liked it, and it now sits framed on my wall in my house garnering different yet similar reactions from all who see it.
  • The Circular Quay is where the first European settlement grew in Australia. It has since become a center point for Sydney and vibrant shipping yard. The day I took this shot, the skies had been threatening to rain. At the time, I was trying to find the best angle to take a "touristy" shot of the world famous Sydney Opera House. Then I felt droplets. I ducked into a shipping warehouse to wait out the light storm, when I noticed its garage door with wire-screen panels. Fascinated with the design, I focused my camera to see if something might develop. Shortly after, I spotted this women running up George Street to get to her car. I framed my image and snapped three shots. This one was the one that was in focus.
  • Australia’s first settlers landed on a rocky spur of land on the western side of Sydney Cove. Now called The Rocks, this was a squalid, raucous place full of convicts, whalers, prostitutes and street gangs until the 1900’s. Modern redevelopment has since sanitized the Rocks into a quaint historical district full of photo-snapping tourists, narrow cobblestone streets, trendy locals on bikes and rollerblades, and hurried business people on lunch. I like this photo because it represents Sydney current stature as a cosmopolitan city as well as its mottled past, barely hidden beneath the brick-lined sidewalks.
  • After more than 14 weeks on the road during my Search for Thor Sabbatical, incredible images like this started bursting through my viewfinder. Some might call this image a mistake. I had intended on getting a nice compressed image of Sydney’s frantic, rush hour pedestrian traffic when suddenly a businessman’s foot stepped into my shot. I knew once I released the shutter that this mistake was really an opportunity. I was pleased to discover my good fortune later that day when downloading images back at my room in Kings Cross. Thunder and lightning.Thor had broke the room.
  • On my way to visit the site of the World Trade Center, I passed by these white stick figures painted on a walking path near Pier 40 along the West Side Highway. The scene was too rich in photographic opportunity for me to resist. I stood there for nearly an hour, waiting for countless pedestrians and cyclists to pass by. Out of nearly 125 images, only three came out. And this is the only image where most of the cars and trucks in the background are facing in the opposite direction of the walker. I’ve always admired people who find the courage to walk their own path – often against a sea of popular opinion and a faceless majority. I am proud to dedicate this photo to them.
  • You may have heard of jet lag. In February 2002, I experienced hemisphere-lag. A week before I snapped this shot along Lake Michigan in Chicago, I was wearing shorts and sandals enjoying the tail end of summer in New Zealand. The sheer temperature difference was nearly a 90-degree shift...down. And being right by the lake, there was humidity. (Shiver.) It's amazing how things can change when you travel.
  • On an eight-hour layover in Sydney, I snapped this shot while revisiting some favorite spots along my spiritual sabbatical. One was this trendy retail development in the Circular Quay that sits in the shadow of the Sydney Bridge (seen in the background as well as in the reflection from the window). Two centuries before, it was where Sydney was founded. During it's initial years, it became a major shipping hub for the British fleet with rough-and-tumble pubs, rooms by the hour and retail of the red-light kind. How times have changed.

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