Photographing People on the Street

I would like to address an article written recently by blogger Adam Marelli, found here, addressing the issue of photographing people (in particular - strangers) who are in a public space.  There are a number of schools of thought on this issue, and Adam Marelli's has validity. I don't agree with him completely. What he suggests is not by any means a new idea. It's been around and written about since cameras were portable - I think that's ummmm..... The Civil War. I often engage my subjects in conversation when photographing them, but I also at times want to NOT intrude upon the spontaneity of the moment, or perhaps my intention is to capture specifically their reaction to me taking their picture (a la Bruce Gilden). I don't recommend using a long lens to shoot street, but not for reasons of surrepticity. Rather because using a wide lens creates much more a feeling of presence, and allows for more of a sense of place. Marelli offers the practice of 'hip' shooting as a foolish idea practiced by perverts or creeps. I often shoot from the hip for several reasons: it creates a totally different perspective, when I shoot on the street there's often not enough time to get the camera into position at my eye when a scene unfolds before me, and it's much less intrusive to the moment. Marelli is certainly entitled to shoot the way he wants, but to suggest that those who chose to do it differently are jerks is just immature and narrow minded. He sounds like a petulant child who insists that everyone must be or act the way he says.

My style of shooting actually demands that I use these techniques some of the time. I don't do it to display people as a 'piece of meat', rather it's to respect and not intrude upon their moments of introspection and at the same time present an image of a person deep within himself while in a disinterested and oblivious crowd of shoppers and other pedestrians. How else is it possible to portray a person's isolation and sadness in our sterile, disinterested, materialistic society. Are we to deny these feelings exist? If my image touches a viewer and/or helps him to identify with the subject and in so doing bring him to a place of feeling less isolated, then my purpose has been successful. 

The style of shooting I choose at times may by some be considered confrontational, that's just my photojournalistic training that comes out naturally. And if it serves to generate an image of haughtiness or condescension that I have picked up on and that attracted me to the image, then my intention to portray the person as I intuitively perceived them has been realized. I don't do it out of disrespect for the person or for sensationalism, I do it because it's a slice of real life, of real people who surround us daily and with whom we must cope and coexist. 

New York Faces - More Than A Catalog

I've been giving a lot of thought lately as to what it is that I shoot, why I shoot it, what I'm trying to say with it ....  Questions that were prompted by a column I read recently (I don't remember where) that was a discussion about the substance of photography books. The point of the column was that a book of photographs should be more than just a random collection of images, or a catalog of images shot by a particular photographer. The work set in the format of a book needs to say something as a unified body of work that justifies being presented as a book. That's not to say there's anything wrong with putting a bunch of photographs taken on vacation into self published book, and sharing it with friends and such. That's a perfectly legitimate reason to produce a personal book for personal use. I'm thinking in grander terms.

When I look at the broad perspective of my work shot during the past several years I see a pattern and a direction, and as that grows so too does my processing of the photographs to focus on the content of the images. The two work together .... I think. I'm having some difficulty in verbalizing the ideas, in making a literal statement. But it's coming along. When the concepts become crystalized, I'll be able to say what I need to in a clear concise way. For now I'm feeling my way, and it's a trip that's like no other - figuratively and literally (wink, wink) - I've ever taken before.

All I can say of it at this point is .... New York Faces.

On 34th Street

On Monday I attended a talk by documentary photographer Natan Dvir which was presented at B&H Photo in Manhattan. I was initially attracted to his work because I had seen on the internet a series of his images entitled 'Coming Soon' which is a collection now on exhibit at the Anastasia Photo gallery in Manhattan.

The weather was really wonderful that day, so after the talk I found a spot on West 34th Street to sit and enjoy the people parade. It's a street I walk quite a bit, but usually from Penn Station enroute to somewhere, or to Penn Station to catch a train home, so I never really spend much time there to take photos. There were quite a number of photographers in the area, probably because of the proximity of the B&H superstore. I chatted with several of them, including this gentleman who was shooting with a Nikon film camera.

I stood at the corner of 34th Street and Seventh Avenue for a time, and noticed this woman standing just next to me. She stood there for several cycles of changes in the traffic signals, so she wasn't waiting to cross the street. She was trying to look nonchalant and uninterested that I was taking photos at the corner. I think she was posing for me, hmmm .........

Then, when I turned to head to Penn Station this gentleman started babbling some unintelligible stuff directly at me and posed for this shot. Sometimes I walk the streets and can't find a decent shot, or when I do people curse and sneer at me. Somedays people knock each other over for a chance to get in front of the camera ....

Everybody Is Happy .... Well, Almost

On Saturday I took a walk through Lower Manhattan - across Canal Street, up through Little Italy and SoHo. It was a cool early spring day, the sun was brilliant, not a cloud in the sky, people were happy. For the past few weeks I spent a lot of my photo-walking time in the midtown/east side area and this Saturday as I walked through the crowds I was struck by the difference in the overall attitude of the area residents. They were happy, smiling people going about their daily routines of dog walking and food shopping, taking care of life's necessities. The uptown crowd seemed different - there were scowling, frowning faces of people going about their daily routines of running from one business deal to another, getting to Berdorff, Versace, Prada, Tiffany, or Cartier to pick up what they needed to make it through the day.

On Saturday I changed my shooting routine a bit. After I grabbed a few shots, I chatted with some of the people. It was fun and diffused some potentially intense moments. And I got a bit of insight about the people. The more I do this and grow with the process, the more I enjoy it. Life is good.

Well, not everyone was happy with me ....

No Exit ....No Entrance

Spring has finally arrived in the Big Apple and I'm eagerly looking forward to spending many days out on the street shooting before the weather becomes too beastly hot to be able to take long walks. Hopefully that will be two or three months.

Over the past year of shooting street and reviewing my images, I've refined my objectives more precisely. For the past several years of perambulating around the byways of New York anything has been fair game. My tendency is to always try to have people doing something in my shots - that's where the story is. I appreciate others' work that don't have that human element, but my eye is always attracted to scenes with some kind of unfolding drama, a telling gesture or expression. Over the past few months I seem to have been drawn in even closer, to shoot what may well be called street portraits. That's much more difficult to do and still carry some element of a story. Enter the amazing Fujinon 14mm f/2.8 lens. Super wide angle - allows for being in really close and still be able to capture some environmental elements to get a sense of time/place.

For both of these images I was at most three feet away from the subject. The first was shot from the hip, the second looking through the optical viewfinder. Both processed in Lightroom and Nik Silver Efex Pro 2. I was drawn to shoot the first image as the store owner opened the door for a breath of fresh air on a wonderful sunny day. The second image was shot on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 59th Street - which is a crossroads for many of the 'beautiful' people from Manhattan's wealthy Upper East Side and some not so beautiful, not so wealthy people who struggle to find daily sustenance any way they can.

The Ethics of Street Photography

I usually avoid mentioning subjects such as this because everyone has their own opinion. Editors, curators, gallery owners, critics ..... oh yes, photographers also. I'd bet that all of these groups, except for the last, think that it's a topic that should be subject to open dialogue, panel discussions, editorials and such. Of course they do, they make their living with words. The more words used, the more important are the people who use them. Take, for instance, this article in which the author would have us believe that our motivation for taking street photos should be tempered by the culturally accepted norms of the era during which we shoot. So by his reasoning, it was fine for Gary Winogrand (who, by the way, is second only to Gene Smith in my pantheon of photographic heros), to  shoot without any regard for the sensibilities of his subjects (a show of much of his never before seen work is currently on exhibit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and reviewed briefly by Slate Magazine) but that ethic which allowed Winogrand the freedom to create a huge body of work that defined the culture of his era is no longer 'correct' for current day street photographers. It's no longer good enough to be honest in our vision. Now, according to Mr. Coburg's reasoning, we can be honest only if the subject of or image(s) approve of our honesty. Heaven forfend if in the attempt at honesty, the photographer shows his subject not quite as they would want to be seen.

This is an issue that every street shooter has to deal with very early in the pursuit of his/her passion.   How a photographer chooses to come to terms with it is reflected in the immediacy and emotional impact of the images. That's what is paramount to me. Some may think I'm an insensitive boor, but what anyone else thinks of me is none of my business.

Not Always Street

This past Saturday afternoon I had a very pleasant opportunity to photograph the dance groups of the Kat Wildish Showcase which performed at the Alvin Ailey Dance facility in Manhattan. The groups that performed consisted of non-professional dancers that were involved with the showcase for the pure joy and love of dancing. The performances glowed with exuberance.

The opportunity presented me with challenges I had not anticipated. I knew the lighting would be difficult and that I wouldn't be able to use a flash - I had to use a slow shutter speed and high ISO to be able to maintain some depth-of-field. The dancers' movements were very fast and sudden, and without having seen the performances previously, I missed opportunities because my shutter finger was a tenth of a second too slow. I had to try to anticipate without knowing for sure what was coming. And I had no freedom of movement - I was in the front row, but had no opportunity to move from my seat - dead center -  for varying perspective.

Here's a few shots from my first attempt at dance photography: