P&P: Exercise 14: An Organized Event

This exercise calls for shooting an organized event at which people are in motion and at which one can expect to move about and photograph without restriction.  As these types of events are rather uncommon in the Arab summer, I took the opportunity to photograph an organized event that goes on year-round in Dubai - construction.

The work depicted here is the laying of brick to create off street parking in an area featuring a number of schools, one of which can be seen in the background of these images. I happen to pass down this street each day on the way to work, and this morning I stopped off at the gas station to pick up some cold drinks for the workers, an offering that I hoped would endear me enough to be allowed to photograph. I arrived just as they took a mid-morning meal break and so had the opportunity to take some photos of rest.

Street Shooting: Spotted

Camera in hand, I went back out to SZR yesterday, the first time in months.  It was a somewhat dispiriting experience.  I didn't feel like walking so I just sat on the lip of a window sill in front of the metro station and bus stop and watched the world walk by.  A Chinese girl tried to sell me a massage.  A South Asian tried to sell me an iphone, probably stolen.  A Filipino guy tried to sell me a loan.

P&P: Exercise 11, 12 & 13: Standing Back, Close and Involved, Standard Focal Length

These three exercises are experiments with focal length.  The first requires shooting at maximum, then at minimum, and finally at a medium standard.  The purpose is to demonstrate not only the property of lenses, which was included in Part 1 exercises, but also the dynamics of photographer participation.  At maximum length the photographer can often remove himself from interacting with his subject, while at minimum length he becomes a very real part of the scene.

This weekend I took a stroll through Satwa Park, an area of town inhabited largely by South Asian and Filipino laborers.  My intention was to shoot for 30 minutes each at either end of my kit lens - 55mm and 18mm.  Using the rule suggested in the course notes, in which subjects seen with the naked eye are the same size when seen through the view finder,  I found that standard focal length was close to 55mm, the extreme end of my lens.  I therefore shot a few images at 35mm to see what differences might suggest themselves.

P&P: Exercise 9: Developing Confidence

Part Two of the course moves into photographing people without their knowledge or consent, what might otherwise be known as reportage or street photography.  The exercises assume the student has little or no experience with this kind of image making and so are designed to lead him or her into a public place and gradually move in on the subject, shooting first with a telephoto and then wide angle lens.  This first exercise is nothing but a warm-up:  get out there and shoot.

This morning the wife said we would be doing our weekly food shopping at the Dubai Mall.  Great.  I'll visit the aquarium.  There are always loads of tourists out in front of the big glass wall, all snapping away.  

I wore my tourist hat and bag and blended right in.  Made eye contact with several people and asked the South Asian guys if I could shoot them.  No problem.  They love posing.

The only time I felt inhibited was in wanting to shoot a Saudi family.  Gulf Arabs can sometimes be sensitive, especially the women, and as I didn't want problems with security I just let them be.  

Next up:  Shooting with telephoto.  

Review: BBC: Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures? (2013)

Maier, Self-portrait

A 70-minute introduction to the life and work (of what is so far known) of the American-born, French-raised photographer who left behind 100,000 negatives and who in her lifetime never published or exhibited.  In fact, almost no one ever saw her photographs until she was near dead and she wasn’t recognized as an auteur until she was. 

Joel Meyerowitz observes that not publishing her work is after all not so surprising.  He believes that after years of regular practice, capturing images for oneself is enough.  This is the way one comes to relate to the world and the opinion or praise of outsiders is no longer necessary.

What remains so remarkable and fascinating is the commitment to visual documentation, to day after day, year after year, seeking out the world’s detail, not only in the world where she found herself, but in far flung locations she sought out. In my own work it sometimes seems difficult to raise the energy to get out there for another day of shooting.  Perhaps Vivian had those days, too.  Her perseverance is inspiring.  

So, too, is her independence.  She apparently never married, but in her job kept surrogate families.  It seems what she may have valued most was her freedom, the ability to move around, to have a relationship, but also to walk away.  

The film can be viewed online here:  http://www.veoh.com/watch/v70590131KFPFjY7N

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Review: Howarth and McLaren, Street Photography Now, Thames and Hudson, 2010

As this book is several years old and a number of reviews can be found here and there across the internet, there is not much new to say about it.  I can confirm the accolades afforded in many of these reviews.  I don’t have a huge collection of photo books, and I haven’t yet seen a dedicated street photography book outside of this volume, which is to say my opinion about street photography books is not well informed.  However, this volume strikes me as an excellent printed introduction.  It ably demonstrates the range of approaches and subject matter:  b&w and color, people and things, candid and composed.

The book contains over 300 images from 46 photographers, most of whom I had never heard of.  Unlike many of the surveys of street photography I have read, which tend to focus on the historical centers of London, Paris, and NY, this volume features selections from most parts of the world, though Africa is notably absent.

Film Review: An Expert Guide to Street Photography, with Zack Arias (2013)

An Expert Guide to Street Photography, with Zack Arias
Kelby Training, 2013

Arias quotes Capa on the need for photographers to get close to their subjects and says he prefers wide to long lenses when street shooting.  He says shooting with a long lens feels someone voyeuristic, the implication being that shooting wide and close means being part of the experience being captured.  His appearance and his practice, though, seem to belie his intention.

The photographer wears a black t-shirt with the word Minimalist printed in white, but even a glance reveals a personality not particularly modest or restrained:  large belly, long goatee, earrings, exposed pale flesh of the arms and legs, tattoos.  His approach to street shooting requires being able to remain somewhat anonymous and unobserved.  He wears sunglasses to keep from making eye contact and tries to disguise himself with a baseball cap sporting the local team logo.   Were he going to a tattoo convention  or a rock concert he would not be particularly notable.  He seems to fit in after dark in Times Square, for example, but when he’s out on the Coney Island beach he can’t help but stand out.  He notes everyone at the beach is walking around in the equivalent of underwear, but he doesn't even bother to take off his shirt. He feels equally out of place in China Town, but never considers it might be because of his own appearance.  Long sleeves and trousers might be less conspicuous.  As for getting tight, I don’t recall any examples of him talking to, let alone getting close to, a subject.