Just been some time since I had opportunity to sit on one of these. Best place in a crowded area to disappear and observe without being questionned. They sometimes are a magnet. I just imagined myself sitting there and I took that peacefulness along with me and my happy suite which leaves me time when tucked in but to sit my rear just in front of the comp like now or the TV sometime tiring my eyes away.
We were all using our hands on this job. One pushing the lawnmower carefully taking care of the grass, one holding the paper trying to read between the lines. As for me , holding the camera taking care of the scene. Who knows maybe someone else was watching both hands on the steering wheel.
It's definitely not the same kind of photography as shown above but getting the kind of picture I want of my kids seems to be more difficult than a chosen and composed situation played out on the streets. Rare are the times when I had a camera when they had one of their greatest expressions, in my view( Cute pictures of cute kids don't cut it nicely as good pictures of kids for me). And when I had one, my eye would record it faster and/or the camera could just not do it from the position I was in or I'd be too slow. Realizing that, it is not hard to believe the best camera ever is your eye, too bad memory is not as sensitive and biologically developed to last..jpg)
Apart being in a room filled with parents and kids or a playground with the same actors, I rarely am close to the scenes I photographed nowadays. I got used not to intrude anymore being in a car most of the time and I use a telephoto or a tele-zoom more and more.Anyway, I did promise myself to make it a date to boldly get in the face or sneak on whoever suits my mood to photograph to get what I want and then go with the flow every once in a while not to lose that touch.
A look back at some street shots taken on a self-assignment during a rainy day, a really long while back. Anyway, I noticed that people are more focused on themselves when dealing with adverse weather conditions, which makes your presence and intrusion less noticeable. Some are rushing, some enjoy the show. As a street hunter you might be doing both. I miss the city and snapshooting around.
Can't really relinquish.Never been the case. The pleasure is too big sometimes and the attraction just as present as gravity itself. Never to be ignored.Being so sensitive even to my thoughts I tend to react and express myself boldly, only to come back and readjust.Can't let go of the pleasure of making this kind of photos, if not any kind.Eyes have too much to offer and photography is one hell of a recorder.One that I know of. Its simplicity is lovable. And more so I am indebted to Her. I O U so I'll stick with U for it is my pleasure to serve U as You serve me. Can't turn my back on U.
I'm juggling with thoughts and repeating myself at times just like life repeats itself everyday with a different face. I need to find a consistent approach in general, but especially in doing photos, not to mismanage time and effort. Reason why I was happy about reading about Weston and Leiter's way of sort of "planning their photography" (See post Rush no spirit no rush spirit). I rarely do that, maybe because of the small territory of my photography caused by limited time to go around places, so grabbing anything that comes my way compensates lack of time and feed the urgency of doing photography.Not surprisingly, it has resulted in a lot of waste of film and time as well. Going digital crucial and mandatory is to define one's work, so that every frame gets you closer to your goal. For me a gentle reminder. As for references to photographers, I know "my classics". I now feed more on articles and essays about them than their photos which are results of a philosophy and a way of doing.
I was caught by these two.Then it was only a sight, but reflecting a little on what could be said about it.We look in the same directions.We search for the same thing, aren't we in general? Not the same ways I reckon and not with the same mind frame.But we dress, we eat, we breathe,we work,we dream,we move and are being moved,we think(some with a different part of the brain!?).We got different taste because many flavors to choose from and live by and be satisfied with.But what does it come to and where does it all go during our lifetime? A quest for a good living.Now is it enough to think only for ourselves or elevating and sharing the views and goals with everyone is something worth working towards to?
Her silhouette.We were all moving forward. My film was not sensitive enough but I was.
I'll keep posting even though I'm done clarifying my transition in photography. It will help me sorting out the production and tossing away the bad. Hopefully during that process I'll end up with an idea of packaging all of them in a nicer way. Keep watching. The next will be... next.
Aesthetics. The subjects have radically changed from people to things. The nature of the stacked photos speaks volumes of that change. I now study and develop as much as possible. A perspective.
It's about seeing an opportunity and it's about trust in the outcome.It's about the surprise after you've done what was required at the time.Shooting and grasping what you felt no matter what.It is not about achieving something terrific but it is about doing what was commended at the time.And it is what it is, at last.Now it might not appeal to everybody but all things being equal it serves one purpose,your own.A reflex,a thought, an idea,a vision and an image.It might also be an experiment a posteriori to deepen.You be the first judge of that, you decide and others will give you feedbacks... maybe.The absolute truth about it doesn't lie in time but in the intent and the action at the time.
Sun is shining today and I had a wonderful meeting with Nature couple of hours ago. I took an hour and drove to my favorite spot, somewhere in Great Falls by the water, to grab a shot I had overlooked months ago but got notice of, perusing through archives. Nature doesn't waste time. I did and that shot was nowhere to be had no more. Postponed until...Ah! further notice... from Nature!!??
I can't say it is Contemporary Photography(someone else be the judge of that) but I can say that this is new, and to me and to others probably since I haven't seen this done before... yet. But it is contemporary as far as my photographic history and experience are concerned. It's a visual work that's been progressing at a steady pace and the applications of that optical approach has opened a field of work and production which will only be limited by a decision to end the exploration to a satisfying, to a satisfied degree. I'm not there yet. I'm still searching for new objects that can compliment the process on top of the different ones I have already tackled, the first body of work. I'm excited by the novelty of it and the new aesthetic that it brings.
I started photographing to master my viewfinder first. That rectangle which frames a composition would be the theater of many subjects. But people were seldom present in the photographs and if so, they would be almost hidden in distance. Lines, perspectives, it was all about balancing different values present in a wannabe photo. People came by way of candids of friends, family or appeared when they were the least and last expected to show up, accidents. Dogs came even later and if it weren't for E.Erwitt who spent some time capturing funny photos of dogs, I think I wouldn't have looked at any as subjects. I wouldn't go after these kind of pictures too long though.
As far as I remember I've always loved for my photographs to be narratives, not just well composed snapshots. Not just and only for the beauty of it. Following my analysis, my photographs were carrying something from me that was not easily palpable, especially for me but that had to be expressed. I can't recall all of the images but I know that much. I was not drawn to images like that one above. They would be "happy accidents" or literally photography which I did also. Just photography, writing with light.
I have just stumbled onto that picture taken on a sunny day. It looks like even the sun can't have sometimes that power to lift up the spirit but leaves you in a dream that went to sleep a long time ago.
Remnants of Street photography which won't be my focus no more. Attention will still be there. Can't obliterate a look, a reflex that became natural.
Geographic location--> residential with nobody almost in sight. People found in supermarkets mostly. I don't document shopping habits. Maybe I should. What's left is the decorum of the residential suburbia. Creepy just like that ghostly tissue hanging from that tree. That's what I'm looking at. That's probably a source of explanation of what I do now. Without being thrilled but somehow relieved,I see that abstract in photography seems to be a "norm ",i.e became a formal trend of contemporary photography. I see abstract studies in any genre of photography. Motivations might be different from one photographer to another.
Was I the only one to see that woman? Could that shot advocate for invisible undies 2? Man ,these aftershot details!
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