If a chair sits empty and isn’t photographed, was it ever really empty?” --John Bent

There’s a recent book about photographic “no-no’s” that I haven’t read, but I suspect it includes (or should include) two of my guilty pleasures: one my wife calls my Lonely Trees series, which includes one of my most-liked images ever, and the other, which I have borrowed the title for, Lonely Chairs. This latter series is less well-liked on the interwebs, as if this were any signifier of quality, but which I am drawn to repeatedly. I mostly keep such images to myself, this one notwithstanding.

This image, “Sitter” is the latest lonely chair I have put to film. I was driving down a St Louis street and my eye was drawn to the interplay of light and shadow – the light being especially pleasing, like a spotlight on the chair. By the time I found a parking space and metered the scene, clouds invaded overhead and I took waaaay too many shots before leaving.

I’m not sure why lonely chairs appeal to me, but I know they do to other photographers as well. I’ve seen countless empty chair images made everywhere from Parisian streetside cafes to junkyards. I find a melancholic resonance between lonely chairs and lonely trees, emphasis on lonely. That’s probably the appeal, the sad appeal.

“Sitter” was created with a Pentax SV, 50mm Takumar and Kodak Double X film.