The Weekly Margs by Zach Margolis
R is for Right Angles
Rectilinear
Hi! Welcome back!
It’s a big scary world out there and I almost went with “R is for Reclusive” in honor of the current shelter-in-place order here in SF, but honestly couldn’t find any pictures to match that theme. So we’re going back to “square one” with an exploration of right angles (see what I did there?).
A recurring aesthetic in a lot of my photos is right angles, symmetry, and a clear horizon, overall very squared up shots. It happens less often in pictures with people in them, because people move around and are harder to line up. I feel like the first few of these photos with so many right angles were accidental, and then somehow squaring things up has become my go-to when trying to take any photograph. I’m sure it says something about my preference for balance and symmetry and fairness, but I’m not going to worry too much about that right now.
When I lived in DC, I went to Georgetown to chase down Chaia, a food recommendation (it was great, would definitely go back) and I spotted this precious alleyway. I love the variation in all the sizes of bricks and cobblestones, angles everywhere, and the squared up framing ties it all together for me.
I had a Sunday to myself so I decided to wander towards and around Land’s End and passed by this staircase on the way. The Lincoln Park Steps have their own official™ website (?!). Apparently other famous staircases in SF, like the 16th Avenue Tiled Steps have their own official™ websites too. The stairs are naturally at right angles and I love the pattern that appears on the edges. The random person in the background at the top is positioned in the center, and the symmetry is really pleasing to me.
Subway tiles! As a design design element they’re definitely having a moment. I was taking the train out to Coney Island to swim with the Polar Bears and transferred at the Atlantic Ave/Barclays Center station. The fairly clean (by New York subway standards) tiles were a really great texture to capture. Right before taking this picture, when I pulled my camera out of my bag and took the lens cap off, the lens cap fell and rolled off the platform towards the tracks. For half a second I thought about chasing after it, but then thought better of it and let it be. RIP lens cap.
Technically, this tunnel is more of a trapezoidal shape than a rectangle, so it isn’t made out of right angles itself, but the bricks/cinderblocks have right angles so we’ll go with that. I liked the lighting, and asked Mac to pose a handful of ways, we took long enough that another group of people visiting the lighthouse thought our group was funny and took pictures of us taking pictures.
I hope you all are staying safe out there, see you next week!
XOXO,
Margs