7/17/2006
Moving Walkway, Paris
Darlene from Indiana wrote:
"My biggest question is this; when you photograph people do you first ask their permission? Has anyone ever become angry with you for taking their picture?"
This is the most common question I get asked: do you ask for people's permission?
No. It isn't possible. As soon as you ask permission - you have changed the picture. People may say that it's okay to take their picture but they will pose, make faces, and be on guard as far as how they will be portrayed.
You usually can't ask permission afterwards either as most of the time you don't even know if you are going to use the photograph - or how it turned out.
A couple of points:
It's easier for a woman to point the camera at a stranger than a man. The woman is usally less threatening.
The photographs can be taken either by putting the camera to your eye and snapping at the right moment when the subject isn't aware; or shot from the hip where you try and guess about what you are going to get. You need a lot of patience to do this sort of work because you will fail to get something good most of the time. For every image of people you see on my site, there may be a thousand other shots that were never posted. Maybe more.
It is also the least financially rewarding (money) form of photography because 99% of people would rather have a shot of a beautiful sunset then some scene on the subway or wherever.
You need to be very comfortable in the scene that you're shooting; i.e. your intentions need to be "good." If you are nervous - somehow that will be perceived when the subject realizes that you've just taken their shot - so you need to be prepared to smile, and talk with whoever after the shot. In fact, it's not a bad idea to have a business card on you and tell the person that if their shot does turn out well they can see it on your site...
In all the years I've been doing this I have never had any one get really angry. But it could happen. And as I say - it has to do with knowing and being a part of the community - even if that is New York. If I were to go to Indiana and try the same thing - I would probably get into trouble because I would be a stranger there. In other words - the very best place to practice this technique is in your own neck of the woods. If you come to NY and do this - you will be spotted as an outsider and could get into trouble.
Although if you arrive in New York as a tourist - maybe that could be an advantage as well. I'm not sure. Almost all my Paris shots were taken during the course of a one week visit to Paris. In some ways that may have made me feel "safer" since I actually was just another American tourist.
[Note the photograph taken above was shot with a 21mm lens. The second I shot this the guy in front of me turned and the guy with the girl turned around and gave me the usual what the heck are you doing stare. I wish that my shutter speed had been lower because in that instant I thought it would be good if I could blur the surroundings and keep the subjects sharp. There is a little bit of that effect in the shot, but not as much as I wanted.]
Hope that's helpful to you --
Oh, one more thing - if you are planning to come to NY - it doesn't matter anymore what you are shooting you will at some point run up against security. Don't get into anything with them as they are just doing their job. Of course their job is often an insane one - but so be it. If you don't want to be bothered by security head off to some area where the banks aren't lined with marble.
7/16/2006
101 Careers
At my doorstep on 83rd street. On the first roll I shot with the Hexar. Got to be 10 years ago.
And I notice as I go through negatives that I'm fascinated by juxtapositions of words and conditions.
Man with White Sunglasses.
I could do a series with people with books in their hand.
7/15/2006
Mausoleum, Woodlawn Cemetery
Well that's the thing about life - it is fleeting. No way around it. But if we can't be here forever - then maybe we can hire an artist to build something that will last longer than we did. That is part of the artistic impulse as well - to create objects that will outlive us.
7/14/2006
bx analysis
The thing is - as I'm going through all this negative scanning - I'm starting to analyze what I was doing and why. Why did I like a particular angle. I see framing patterns forming across all the photos. The "overview" perspective is all over the place, going back to when I was 15 years old.
Then, I notice that I seem to like shots where almost nothing is happening.
A train is coming into the station - what am I thinking? Why do I care? But the train is pulling in slowly - and it won't be blurred - and there's a guy looking out the window in the front car. I used to do that all the time. Favorite car: first car with a good clean window.
But at one point to shoot? I want to cram the view of Burnside Avenue in. But I want some decent angle on the guy at the window... click.
I'm looking at negatives going back 30 years or more. I don't see much difference in terms of subject matter, framing, or ideas. The only thing that changed was technique - but not ideas.
This morning I had the car for a while. I started the engine without knowing where I was headed.
So where do I end up? The Bronx. Grand Concourse. Hey, they actually opened the Paradise Theater again. Cool. But what an ugly paint job they did on it. The colors are awful.
But there I go like a salmon to the Grand Concourse.
I afraid I'm doomed (or blessed, depending on my mood) to shoot the past over and over.
Apartment 1E, 2004
Flickr
I've been setting up galleries on Flickr. Wow - that is some big community they've got up there. The first thing I was wondering was - yikes - how much disk space do they use? Must be football fields of servers. Anyway - the organizing interface is wonderful. A lot easier to add and remove things from than my own gallery system.
Here's the link to my stuff on Flickr.
Here's the link to my stuff on Flickr.
7/13/2006
Woodlawn Mausoleum
Still on my tour of Woodlawn Cemetery pictures. I'll be darned if some of these mausoleum's aren't bigger than my apartment. That strikes me as unfair. What is the point of the contemporary mausoleum anyway? It's not like the olden days where the dead king needed room to take his stuff with him. Now we know you can't take it with you.
Besides being rather grand - what is equally annoying is that most of the mausoleums are designed by artists! Artists for the dead. That must be pretty steady work.
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