Bill Sosin

Chicagoan, a self-taught photographer, graphic designer and print publisher. Extensive background in PhotoShop and InDesign software with expertise in high quality digital and conventional imaging.

Notes On City Rain
A while back I ran across some negatives I shot from my car in the old film days. I was intrigued by them and began photographing from inside my car again. Driving around the city in a downpour I had glazed over momentarily at a stop light as the droplets of rain gathered on the windshield and the chromium vapor of the streetlamps blurred behind them. I let the cinema window of the car become obscured with the pebbles of water and then photographed them with my 4 mega pixel point-and-shoot. I started to repeat the process whenever circumstances allowed, ultimately taking more serious shots with a larger 12.3 mega pixel digital camera.

What started haphazardly became an obsession and I have now captured hundreds of these images. Generally the texture of the precipitation is kept in focus, and the shape, weight and direction of the droplets can change according to wind flow and the severity of the rainfall. Activity in the city streets is set in shallow focus behind this. Neon fluorescence and radiant red light from car brake lights are common themes, but more abstract and suggestive patterns are created by silhouetted pedestrians hastening along with pendulous umbrellas; vehicles such as towtrucks or sixteen ...