Street Photography

 D: I hope that what I'm going to bring up won't be tiresome for you, too. The term "street photography" and your name have been synonymous for quite some time. But the streets are not the only place where you've worked over the last twenty-five years or so. You've worked in zoos and aquariums, Metropolitan Museum of Art openings, Texas rodeos. There must be some common thread that runs through all of your work. How would you describe it? W: Well, I'm not going to get into that. I think that those kind of distinctions and lists of titles like "street photographer" are so stupid. D: How would you prefer to describe yourself? W: I'm a photographer, a still photographer. That's it.

Garry Winogrand

Garry Winogrand interview. 

Laurie Anderson

“As I walked along Houston Street with my fully automated Nikon.  I felt armed, ready. I passed a man who muttered ‘Wanna fuck?’  This was standard technique: the female passes and the male strikes at the last possible moment forcing the woman to backtrack if she should dare to object.  I wheeled around, furious. ‘Did you say that?’ He looked around surprised, then defiant ‘Yeah, so what the fuck if I did?’ I raised my Nikon, took aim began to focus.  His eyes darted back and forth, an undercover cop? CLICK.” 

Genius. 

Privilege and Subjects

Standing out with a large gawky camera bag, small tri-pod, and huge digital camera, an older photographer approaches a very archetypal looking homeless man on Broadway. Nothing particularly unique about him aesthetic wise. Blue over sized sweater, missing a few teeth and signs of extreme poverty that most people pass by everyday.

The older man was obviously on a mission. They starting talking, a weird juxtaposition between two characters. An older white man with expensive equipment, base ball cap, button up shirt. He could have been any suburban kids grandfather. And a homeless guy. If there was a scene here, I should have taken a shot of both of them. I wondered though, if he was negotiating to take his picture. Soon enough, I saw a dollar pulled out and he held up his camera for less than a minute before the guy took off. It gets weird. The photographer starts to yell about how much he was ripped off and the homeless guy is booking it back across the street with his dollar.

I asked off handily if he was out trying to grab portraits. "Yeah. Did you see that? He ripped me off!" I tried to tell the photographer he wasn't ripped off. This guy is walking around a downtown urban area with thousand dollar digital photo equipment. His artistic vision? To give a homeless guy one dollar; who didn't want his picture taken, he wanted the money. As a photographer, do you feel someone in a desperate situation for money is in debt to you because they have no alternative? No way.

This guy chose to take off before you got your shot and doesn't owe anyone anything. Certainly you have no right to yell at him.

He asked me what kind of camera I'm shooting with and I busted out a disposable I was still working on, concealed neatly in my jacket pocket. Small, light, stealthy. I could bust it out and shoot before anyone could think, "what a weirdo." The contrast between this and his giant rig resulted in an awkward pause between the both of us. He told me that he see's a lot of interesting characters in Oakland as he points to a high school kid wearing some jewelry. "Get it!" is all I said enthusiastically.

We parted ways and I told him to "be brave". Advice that I don't follow often enough, I am still really shy. A minute or so later though I got a photo of a woman that caught my eye. She was strutting in platforms down the sidewalk. "Excuse me, can I take a picture of your hat?". She turned around and I got the portrait in my own way, for what it's worth. "It's a scarf." she said.

Would have eliminated a little room at the top of the frame.

I've had some unfavorable interactions taking pictures of people. Sometimes, it isn't easy how to approach things. Money doesn't actually smooth anything over. I was with a friend near the tenderloin when this man kept asking me to take his picture several times pretty aggressively. I knew it was the opposite of the situation with the photographer in Oakland, so he could demand change from me once I have taken his picture. I kept saying no. We went to refill my friends coffee at Starbucks. I am sitting opposite him and he looks up past me. "Our friend is back". I turn around and didn't know what he meant and I see the following scene in front of me:

At least this photo got him off this girls back.

He loses it and is demanding 20 dollars when I have maybe 50 cents at best in my pocket. Three SFPD having coffee, break up the scene and send the guy away. I start to get lectured about how I can't take peoples picture without their permission, how it's illegal, and how dangerous it is. But I think it all was because I interrupted their break. My first photo that invoked the fuzz, crazy!

If I felt that I could have compensated this guy in some positive way, and not monetarily I would have. I don't like it when people get pushed out anywhere, even a Starbucks by the man. 

I think the overall energy and experience of encounters in doing photography are what it's all about. The end result of the woman on Broadway, or this guy at the Starbucks are interesting but not amazing. But getting each shot had a build up, a better story leading up to it then what I could put into a frame.

New Camera Strap

I inherited this camera strap from my grandfather. I never met him. It's a kitschy camera strap from Kodak that lets you hold three rolls of film in, commando style. Here is the original letter.

Daido Moriyama "Near Equal Moriyama Daido" Full video.

 

Disposable Cameras

The Photo Pack Matic by Fex- a French disposable camera with 12 4x4 frame exposures. 

Disposable cameras today seems like an antiquated novelty to a lot of people. Bust one out anywhere people will ask, "Is that film?", or "Is that a disposable camera?". Yeah, bro; Is that your lunch from Instagram? 

I've been shooting lately with disposable cameras a reigning champion in simplicity. A point and shoot film camera worthy of its convenience store veneration, It's as simple as film gets. And I don't feel that writes it off as only suitable for an introduction to film in photography. It frees you from metering, and thinking too much about light. Leaving room for growth in composition, creativity, and framing. You might think to yourself that creates lazy tendencies, but it's actually more of an exercise in creating good pictures with less control. It mandates you build up confidence and nerve with its fixed plastic lens forcing you up close.

Up Close. Man in the Mission District of San Francisco. From my blog TCT.

Walk around with one in dirty city streets, in a show at a warehouse, a riot, raging parties and your wedding. Day time is ideal, night time is no problem. At night you are going to get a harsh flash in the picture and its going to be gritty, and it's going to be rad. And compared to most digital point and shoot cameras, an iPhone I think it looks better. It has soul, it has grain, you only get 27 tries to capture something golden, and you have to pay for it each time. Forcing you to be nice as possible to your Walgreens clerk because you want it to come out, and because you'd rather buy a tall can and a burrito rather then springing for an expensive photo lab. Disposables are just expensive, and processing is at least 7 bucks a roll if you aren't doing it yourself. I know I'm asking for a Yashica T for my birthday. Posted below - all things disposable.

Indoor shot with flash. The hand's highlights are way blown out but it's still an interesting picture.

An iPhone Fan, Day Time. Oakland. 

See Also:    

Popular Photography Article on the History of the Throwaway Camera. 

20 Disposable Camera Hacks. (lo-fi the lo-fi)

Amazon Disposable Best Sellers. 

Online Collection of Kodak Single Use Cameras.

Newspaper Article About the Fling

Disposable Groups on Flickr