Art on the Capital City // INFLUENCE Magazine
Art on the Capital City // INFLUENCE Magazine
INFLUENCE Magazine asked us to photograph a feature on the growing mural scene across Tallahassee for their Winter 2022 issue. The story, written by Rosanne Dunkelberger, covered more than a dozen murals and public art installations spread across the city, from Railroad Square to Cascades Park to South Monroe Street and beyond. For us, that meant a multi-location assignment covering a lot of ground across downtown Tallahassee and the surrounding neighborhoods.
Photographing murals and street art presents a different set of challenges than a typical portrait or editorial session. The art itself is the subject, and our job is to document it in a way that communicates both the scale and the detail of each piece. A mural that covers the side of a building reads very differently in person than it does in a magazine spread, so we had to think carefully about how to frame each one. Some of these works are massive; the "Greetings from Tallahassee" postcard piece on the back of The Other Side Vintage in Railroad Square, for example, needs a wide perspective to take in the full composition. Others, like the BirdO animal hybrids in the underpass near Cascades Park, reward closer framing where you can see the texture and detail in the paint.
The logistics of an assignment like this come down to planning the route and working with available light. These are all outdoor locations, many of them on walls that face specific directions, which means the sun hits them differently depending on the time of day. We mapped out the locations ahead of time and sequenced them based on which walls would have the best light at which hours. Our Canon mirrorless cameras and a range of Canon lenses gave us the flexibility to go wide on full building facades and then pull in tight on details without swapping too much gear between stops.
This feature also has a personal connection for us. One of the murals included in the article is the Never Forgotten Coast piece at the intersection of West Van Buren Street and South Adams Street, which came out of a project we founded after Hurricane Michael. Seeing that included alongside work by internationally recognized artists was a proud moment, and it made this assignment feel a little more personal than most.
As Tallahassee photographers, we spend a lot of time in this city, and assignments like this remind us how much the visual landscape here has changed over the years. There's a layer of creativity on these walls that most people drive past without slowing down, and it was great to help INFLUENCE Magazine give it the attention it deserves.
This feature was photographed by The Workmans for INFLUENCE Magazine and appeared in the Winter 2022 issue and was written by Rosanne Dunkelberger. The Workmans are a husband-and-wife photography team based in Tallahassee, Florida, and we work with publications across the state of Florida, in Washington D.C. and around the United States. You can explore more of our editorial photography in the archive, see more of our work across our website and connect with us on how we can best serve you!
