I recently re-watched Sidney Lumet's 1975 thriller Three Days of the Condor after many decades. While I never consciously remembered much of the movie, as the scenes unfolded I realized how deeply ingrained they were in my memory, and the extent to which they helped make me a fan of the spy/political thriller genre. But there was one scene in particular which had another influence on me, when Robert Redford's character ponders the photos in the apartment of Faye Dunaway's character - a photographer. As the camera pans across the black and white prints, he comments:
"Lonely pictures."
"So?"
"You're funny. You take pictures of empty streets and trees with no leaves on them."
"It's winter."
"Not quite winter. They look like November. Not autumn, not winter; in between... I like them."
There was something about those pictures and the mood of the music Lumet used, and the comment about loneliness, which all came together for me. And I remember feeling, as a young man watching the movie for the first time, that this was the kind of photography I related to. And, looking back on it now, that they all convey elements of my photographic style.
