A series on various historic and prominent figures and how would they see the world if they were photographers.
Although he died almost 40 years before the Kodak camera was invented it may be an interesting attempt to put a man like Edgar Allan Poe behind a lens. He would have used a Daguerreotype which was widely used in the 1840s.
Edgar Allan Poe, an outsider in his time, one of the most original American writers, today remembered for his haunting poetry, shot stories and literary criticism. Accredited with inventing the “detective story” and laid the foundation for the “short story”. His themes mostly dealt with mystery and death.
So how would he approach a scene?
He would surely use a few dilapidated houses, photographed preferably at dawn ( most of his themes happen at night time) where he would try to mimic some scenes from his stories and poems. If a figure is present it would be a single figure with features perhaps hidden as it would enhance the mystery feeling of an image.
The compositional side is a bit tricky here, but perhaps he would use a mid range lens. Not too wide as it may loose some intensity of the feeling of mystery as it may introduce too many elements and not a telephoto lens as it would eliminate the surrounding completely. So he would have gone with something of a range between 24-50 mm equivalent.
As always it is a fun experiment.