Although it opened in 2017, it took me far too long to discover Qatar National Library —2021 was when I first stepped into the gorgeous building in the Education City district of Doha. Instantly hooked, I spent many days in this glass and concrete sandwich. Back then, in the limbo between resigning from my digital marketing job and starting grad school, the library became my top-choice. I look back at this time with the rosiest-tinted glasses, as I was able to dedicate more time on these creative pursuits of being better educated about art.

Since then, although I have visited Doha every year since 2022, I haven't had the chance to step into the library, until this day.

The library is a massive structure spanning 45,000 square meters and is outfitted with many open and private study spaces, reading nooks, a few open spaces for events, a dedicated events hall, a section for storing historic manuscripts, a cafe, and a restaurant. Back in 2021, I would usually sit in one of the open study spaces and slowly read through the books I'd picked up. If you are a resident of the country, membership is free and there are plenty of books in every genre to take your pick.

This day, finally with a bit of time to kill, I knew I wanted to check some photography books. I am no street photographer, but there are numerous inspiring qualities of street photographers I would like to bring into my work: the confidence to photograph strangers on the street, story-telling in the spur of the moment, composing in a fast-paced environment. I decided to go with photographers whose oeuvres I have seen in passing, but am not fully familiar with. To that end, I found some photography books of Saul Leiter, Alex Webb, and William Eggleston. In my 2 hours spent at the library on this day, I was able to finish going through 2 of the 3 books; with the book about Saul Leiter being a biography I will return to next year.

Los Alamos Revisited - Volume 1 (William Eggleston)

This book is a part of a 3 part series featuring Eggleston's travels in the eponymous city in the 1960s and '70s. The photos were originally set aside by the photographer and were only published in 2003. The book features punchy slide photos of the suburban town years after the war; with a huge focus on cars, signboards, and street corners — plenty of 20th century Americana. He photographed mundanity in the rich colors of wonderful Kodachrome. However, there is a lot of repetition in the themes; much of the photos feel like snapshots that the artist might have taken in the spur of the moment (more on this later)

I found there to be an interesting interplay of colors and themes and sometimes a tinge of humor in the photos. During the time when William Eggleston first started shooting color, black-and-white photography dominated the fine art space and color was not something that museums were typically interested in. William Eggleston's 1976 exhibition of 14 color photos at the MoMA was thus a watershed moment in the history of color photography.

An exercise I put myself through while browsing the photos was imagining myself in the shoes of the photographer in the moment: Why did they choose the composition? What might have caught their eyes? Was the photo more in-the-moment or something premeditated like a fishing shot that street photographers have a predilection towards?

The Ford Torino photo below definitely captures 2 things that are mundane but still pop out at you immediately: the repetition of the green car on the billboard and the green car in front of a similar green wall, the "New Generation!" sign pairs well, mirroring the billboard that presents a new car.

Eggleston's attraction towards signboards and cars is shared among photographers even today. In many ways, I was able to see how Eggleston's work has informed my own, without me knowing of the inspiration.

Later, I researched more on Eggleston's work, and it's an interesting conundrum as his appeal is controversial to say the least. His subject choice is mundane and everyday American life. I was recently reading a substack post about "open" vs "closed" photos —closed photos being ones that don't spark curiosity in the mind of the audience. Much of the photos in this book felt like closed photos by that definition. Eggleston's work shocked the photography space with his approach to everyday life and many critics dismissed his work as "snapshot chic".

I only started with photography in 2014, and I would be hard-pressed to not see photos of neon signboards being shared by photographers today. Maybe it was Eggleston's work that is secretly informing much of the work by photographers today?

The Suffering of Light (Alex Webb)

The second pick-up of this evening was this book; a collection of Alex Webb's color photos from around the world. I spent a significant amount of time going through the photos in this book during the rest of my evening here at QNL.

If Eggleston's book contained photos of a rather deserted streets mostly devoid of humans, Alex Webb's book flipped the script entirely. Eggleston's contained simpler compositions showing places as they are, whereas Webb's work contains complicated layers, reflections, shadows, each pulling the visual rubber band to its fullest. Colors are punchy, shadows fall off into pure black, and there are plenty of sub frames. My eyes stayed glued on each picture as I took in the beautifully framed chaos.

Tension is an important part of Webb's work. The photos hold your attention from corner to corner with your eyes finding patterns in multiple places.

I recently watched the movie Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino for the first time. Much of Webb's photos have the photo-equivalent appeal of the movie's tavern scene, where you, the viewer are slowly inching closer to the edge of your seat as Tarantino pulls the suspense rubber band of your attention till it snaps in a crescendo of bloodbath.

I love the photo above so much. Later, I found an article on the Guardian where Alex Webb shares his thoughts and what was going on when he took this photo. In my own photography, usually I'd focus on isolating the subject through subframes and slow shutter speed to motion blur other distracting elements, Webb takes the opposite approach to include multiple subjects in different layers of the image and shooting at a comparitively higher shutter speed to freeze big movements in place.

Geoff Dyer, who wrote the afterword mentions the "abolition of the distinction between foreground and background". Webb's photos don't follow the traditional foreground, subject, background routine—they instead work in multiple complicated layers. Turns out he was working with these layers even before he started out on his color photography journey after 1975. In the black and white photo below, you can see the intentional addition of the bucket in front of the frame.

Although Webb started out as a black-and-white photojournalist, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that it was William Eggleston's 1976 MoMA show that nudged him to shoot more in color.

The photos very closely focus on people. That focus need not necessarily be real people, it could be posters, placards, reflections, shadows, or just parts of the human face.

I felt deeply inspired by Alex Webb's work. His approach to street photography felt like something I could emulate in my own attempts.

Later, I found out about Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb's photo book: Memory City which is based on photos taken in Rochester! I plan to find this book in the libraries of Chicago and read it next.

Closing

There's something special about photobooks that places like Instagram can never bring out. Big prints hold your gaze for much longer than pinching your fingers on a small screen. I've been curbing my overconsumption of doomscroll-y apps (I am happy to report that I have not been sucked into the LinkedIn cesspool of vertical videos, whoever thought that was a good idea) and books have been a fantastic escape for that.

Libraries, of course, offer a great way to get into reading more books without the financial and space commitment of owning physical books. I am grateful for having memberships at libraries both in Doha and in Chicago. Reading about these photographers gave me new inspiration for the photos I would want to capture.

I briefly visited India towards the end of the year, marking the end of my trip out of the US in December. I did not have many photo taking opportunities as I rushed from one city to the next. I found a few slivers between cities while getting a moment to sit down in buses and trains. Abolition of the distinction between foreground and background kept coming up in my mind.

I was thinking of Alex Webb's work with layers when I took this photo on my phone, and it serves to be the first where there's a shift in my way of thinking about street photos moving forward.

Post-post-post: As I wrap up this write up waiting for my flight from the airport in Mumbai, I am having quiet moments of appreciation for the last couple of months where I started actively participating in curating the content I consume and the frequency I consume it at.

This trip has allowed me to disconnect very successfully. Being on the road without a power bank means that my phone stays on battery saver with WiFi and Bluetooth off, safely in the comforting embrace of my jeans pocket.

Instead, my Kindle has become a mainstay of my EDC (Every Day Carry). Has social media finally run its course? Have you felt the pull of these platforms weaken recently?