tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-654754338632526091.post6533867583630679375..comments2024-03-27T00:32:29.877-07:00Comments on Photos and Stuff: Peopleamolitorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15743439184763617516noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-654754338632526091.post-52176143775318811182018-05-04T13:47:27.370-07:002018-05-04T13:47:27.370-07:00You don't need to be engaged with the subject ...You don't need to be engaged with the subject when you're inside their bubble. The subject might be distracted, talking to another person, looking at the pretty girl across the street, reading a book. They might simply not yet have fully registered your proximity.<br /><br />The point about The Bubble is that it's a fraught zone in which interaction might occur.<br /><br />If I step abruptly up to you as you step out of the car, there's a whole sequence that unfolds, and a whole sequence of pictures that could occur.<br /><br />You haven't seen me, click.<br />You notice me and begin to startle, click.<br />You're startled, click.<br />Your mask drops into place, click.<br />You say "Hi", click.<br />I say "Hi," click.<br />I say, "can I take your picture?" click.<br />You say, "sure" and put on your camera face, click.<br /><br />As I've noted about Arbus, she seems to have been very very interested in a very very specific slice of this interaction, the one right after the startled look when the mask drops into place, defensive, preparing for the guarded "Hi?" that comes a moment later.<br /><br />It doesn't have to be that fast, either. Two men are talking, I approach and stand close, waiting to slip in a word edgewise "Where is the W Hotel?" and while they continue talking I shoot. They are aware of me, but have yet to acknowledge me. This moment, as most of us are acutely aware, can linger for minutes at a time.<br />amolitorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15743439184763617516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-654754338632526091.post-38776855483711753122018-05-04T13:18:41.751-07:002018-05-04T13:18:41.751-07:00IMO, photos where the photographer engages with th...IMO, photos where the photographer engages with the subject are properly called portraits, whether they're taken in a studio or on the street and regardless of whether the subject is animate or inanimate.<br /><br />(For example, I often take portraits of buildings. While it's true they don't interact very much with me, I absolutely do interact with them!)<br /><br />IMO, portraits benefit greatly from interaction between the photographer and the photographee. (In fact, I will even go so far as to claim that such interaction is essential to their success and its absence guarantees their failure.)<br /><br />On the other hand, Street or Documentary Photography is <i>not</i> portraiture. It's about capturing people being people, living their lives, and their interaction(s) with the people and objects around them, <i>not</i> about capturing them interacting with the photographer and his camera.<br /><br />Because, as you've noted, whenever the photographer and subject(s) interact, the photo being taken changes. In fact, it <i>must</i> change, as Heisenberg explained with his Uncertainty Principle.<br /><br />As such, Street and Documentary photography is -- again, IMO -- best served by the photographer adopting a fly-on-the-wall approach and having as little interaction with the subject(s) of the photo as possible.<br /><br />Mind you, this doesn't necessarily mean a photographer must keep their physical distance from their subject, but it's a lot easier to avoid any interaction with the subject(s) if they stay outside the subject(s) bubble(s).<br /><br />As you also noted, both of these approaches are perfectly valid and when executed well, they result in two very different types of photos being taken.<br /><br />But neither approach (nor the resulting photos) is a lesser version of the other, as you appear to imply, merely a <i>different</i> approach.<br /><br />Poe-<i>Tay</i>-Toe, Poe-<i>Tah</i>-Toe; Toe-<i>May</i>-Toe, Toe-<i>Mah</i>-Toe.JGhttps://audiidudii.aminus3.com/noreply@blogger.com