Rhetoric of Photography: Street Scene
Streets bring to mind a whole host of potential metaphors: an invitation to journey, intersectionality, possibility for change, and movement (both literal and figurative, into the past and future), etc. All of these metaphors involve action; but sometimes, I think in some cases a street can come to embody and encompass the identity of a s/p[l]ace. So when I think about a street that means something to me, I can only think of South Congress - specifically the brief section that runs between Lady Bird Lake and Highway 71. This short strip of asphalt epitomizes everything "Austin" to me, and while I have lived in many places around the world, Austin is the first and perhaps only place that has ever felt like home to me. It is at once weird and comforting. I work here at St. Edward's University and we love to play here - from Magnolia Cafe to Bird's Barbershop to Monkey See, Monkey Do to Jo's coffee. As we took a family walk down South Congress this Saturday, I took to opportunity to capture some of the scenes that I felt well represented this iconic street. So these five images are connected at multiple levels: They all are taken on South Congress; they are oriented facing south toward the Texas state capitol; they likewise represent a progression from south to north (the first photograph is the southernmost and the fifth is the closest to the river which will cross you over from "Austin weird" to "Austin establishment"), and they each are an attempt to conceptualize and concretize a portion of the Austin identity.
Note: I have chosen not to caption these photos with anything other than their location in order to let the images speak for themselves.
Taken outside Bird's Barbershop.
Taken outside of Farm to Market Grocery.
Taken outside of Tesoro's Trading Company.
Taken outside of Jo's Coffee house.
Taken outside of the Austin Motel.
