I was recently contacted by Metropolis Magazine regarding architectural photography that I had done at the Rosa Parks Transit Center (aka: the bus station) in Detroit. The magazine was doing a feature story about the transit center and wanted to use my photographs. The problem was they also wanted photographs of people in the transit center and I had done all of my interior photography without people.

After a few emails to negotiate fees and usage, I headed back to the transit center to produce a few interior and exterior photographs with people in them. Since the photos would be for editorial use, model releases would not be necessary. Because of very tight deadlines I would not be able to wait for good weather and would have to shoot on a very gray, rainy morning.

When I photograph interiors I am concerned with achieving maximum sharpness and the desired depth of field and long exposures are the norm. Photographing a public space while people are coming and going presents anew set of challenges. If the exposures are too long, anyone walking becomes along streak across the photograph.

In years past the majority of interior photography has been done without people. There is now a trend toward including people in the photographs. This trend is being driven by publications that in many cases prefer to run interior and architectural photographs containing people. This is because studies have shown that people will spend more time looking at photographs that have people in them. More people looking at their publication for longer periods of time means that they can better attract advertisers and charge higher space rates. Since architects are always anxious to have photographs of their projects published, they feel that having people in the photos increases the chances of their work being published. 

My personal preference is toward not having people in the photographs. Our eyes are always drawn toward images of people. With my photography I am trying to show the space and I would prefer that people look at the architecture and interior spaces, not at people who populate the space. Of course if I were a portrait photographer rather than an architectural photographer, I would no doubt see this differently.