St. Louis Arch: A New Perspective
Finding a new way to look at the St. Louis Gateway Arch
Taken on a Sony A7R3, F8, 1/4 Second Exposure, ISO 100, 71MM in East Saint Louis, Illinois on 7/3/2022
I recently went on a trip to St. Louis, MO for the first time. Even if you’ve never been to St. Louis, you are probably familiar with Gateway Arch (Recently upgrade bafflingly to a National Park, but I digress), which is synonymous with St. Louis for the last 50+ years. With its 600+foot tall structure that creates a frame for the whole city, of course it would be a main focal point. It also presented me a challenge; how do I look at something that has been photographer a MILLION times a new look, and how would I validate that?
After taking photos of the arch for a couple days, I took some great photos, but nothing that I would necessarily call original that I hadn’t seen before. Let’s face it, one of the most popular national parks in the country with basically one thing that has to be photographed is difficult. However, when I went with my friend on my last day there to East St. Louis (across the river in Illinois), and went to the metal structure that presents a perfect view of the city and arch, I stopped one story short of the main viewing platform. Something caught my eye, something that… was even (Dare I say) original.
The lighting was perfect, and it was hitting the metalic shimmer of the railings in just the right way to create a bright orange glow of the handrails, which were perfectly positioned right int the center of the arch. I pulled out my camera, got right onto the railing to use it as a tripod, zoomed in the frame the rail, and took my shot. It was the exact shot I was looking for. It had the appearance of golden road going right through the arch into the city. This road only existed from this one unique perspective, and for the life of me, I haven’t seen anything like it before, and the lighting (Early July), was just right for it to work.
Now saying it is original is just my opinion, but what about what others thought? I thought no place was more familiar with Arch photos than St. Louis’s subreddit, where a photo of the arch is posted roughly 30 times a day. Would I get any upvotes? Would it cut through the clutter?
Not only did it break through the clutter, but it became the top photo of the arch of the YEAR, remaining the hottest topic for 2 days on the subreddit (Here’s the Link).
So why do I tell this story? Well first, I love how it turned out, but the second is that sometimes even in the confines of a box (in this case, a photo of the arch) that has been captured by a million people, a unique story could still exist. A little patience, creativity, and belief that you can do something new is all it takes to make something fresh.
