Stolen Identities

March 12, 2019

A few thoughts from this last weeks Street Photography efforts;

I can’t help feeling that somehow we steal identities once we release the shutter. Okay, if we’re being paid or asked to take a portrait then that’s part of the deal, the subject is volunteering a part of themselves to us. I’m not going to say it’s their ‘soul’, because I don’t believe that, in any case I find that kind of talk all a bit pompous, but certainly something is being taken. On the street it’s different, people know you’re shooting them, fortunately not many take issue and perhaps they’re more curious than anything as to why or what the hell it is you’re actually doing. Anyway, it happens a lot. You make a photo and someone, somewhere, is looking right at you.

Now, I quite like that. It makes for a much more interesting photo. Some might argue that it’s no longer ‘candid’, I think it makes it even more so, which Street/Life/Documentary whatever you like to call it should try to be. A few more examples from this week;

I really don’t blame this guy for looking, I think his attention was drawn to the creaking sound coming from my knees!

As I say, there is always someone in the background and so it’s impossible to avoid. You may need to open these up by clicking on the thumbnails. The guy second left in the first one, the woman left of frame and in the last one the guy in the foreground has decided to adopt a kind of distant gaze pose whilst the woman behind does the looking straight at me;

It sort of bothers me, this stolen moments thing and there is often a pang of guilt because permission was neither granted or requested. Of course this approach below works too when someone has a camera pointing at you;

or you can look away and allow the guy behind to do the looking;

I could post endless shots like these, but I think we’ll leave it there on that subject. It’s something I think about a lot, but evidently if I post to Social Media it would appear that I don’t care at all….perhaps that’s a question for another day.

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find something different when I’m out. It’s a problem, most of us want to avoid the cliché. I still click them though, because something appeals to me. In this one we have the overused silhouette of the guy in the foreground, however I liked the precise nature of those columns and the architecture compared with the apparent chaos of the madding crowd :

With the next one, and not as someone pointed out with the best of intentions on Instagram it wasn’t the colour match, I saw the lack of communication, from the couple in the window and the guy stood outside looking at his phone as if to say “where’s the Free WiFi they bloody advertised”. Of course, as we know, I’m a fan of scenes, or as much of one as I can fit in the frame;

Okay, to finish up here’s a few different versions of a guy struggling to gain an audience, despite the fact that he’s on a tightrope whilst playing a violin;

Lord knows what you have to do to get attention these days! Oh, yes, just have a camera to your eye;

That kind of brought us around full circle!

It has to be said that there’s nothing particularly special about any of these shots posted. Perhaps that’s the answer ultimately, it doesn’t have to be special, or a glory shot, instead it’s more of what we find interesting or merely catches our eye. We shouldn’t expect others to agree or see what we see, simply doing our own thing and enjoying the process is what it’s all about. This last one in some way reminds me of Social Media, sometimes I feel just like our friend with the violin. Let others manipulate, play the game and pull all the strings;