Photographer Philipp Scholz Rittermann said he likes the challenge of capturing real situations that inspire wonder.
“7 Times 45 Seconds, San Diego, California, 1984” does exactly that.
At first glance, it looks like a space ship landed near the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, but it was, in fact, a lighted crane dredging the harbor.
“It kept going back and forth on this arc, rotating 180 degrees, dropping sledge into a barge,” Rittermann explained.
“But halfway through the exposure, the crane operator changed the angle of the arm, which is why you see concentric conical shapes. The title tells you exactly how I made the photograph. It’s seven exposures at 45 seconds each, which is how long it took for the crane arm to go from one side to the other. If you look at it for a while and are still curious, that’s a thrill for me.”
