I mentioned the other day that I had to go out and sit in one place for one hour and just shoot, right? Well, I don't particularly enjoy shooting people. For one thing, they tend to move around a lot, so getting your subject in focus is a bit of a challenge. They also don't like it when the person holding the camera is a total stranger. That being said, you can find some interesting people if you just hang out at a café with the camera on the table. This may help me get over my squeamishness in shooting people.
While my instructor cautions against lamenting the 'missed shot,' I still regret that I didn't capture the young girl wearing elf ears, and the cheerleader in high heels.
As we were leaving, I whispered to my husband, "Watch out, there's a chick in that window taking pictures of people's butts."
Having recently seen Finding Vivian Maier, I find myself asking a lot of questions about where chronicling the human experience intersects with the responsibility of the artist. If you have not seen the movie, I won't spoil it for you, but Ms. Maier was clearly a damaged person, and as a very private person, photography allowed her to participate in life on terms that she could negotiate. Obsessed with "the folly of humanity", she photographed prolifically on the streets of Chicago, taking the children in her care (she was a nanny) into stock yards and dangerous parts of town. Most of her work remained unprinted, and much of it wasn't even developed, until after her death. And it can be argued that she currently enjoys the greatest popularity of any street photographer. What would she say?
