Watching you Tube videos of street photography inspired . It took me back 40 years to my youth wandering around London. Walking for years alone throughout London as a teenager left me with nothing, except a deep knowledge of the London streets and some nice days out. I walk again, in Canada now, but this time with a different eye, and I come away with something tangible - images, that one day will trigger memories. In a sense I am returning to that time, with an older eye, seeing differently, more perceptive perhaps?
For my first street photography shoot I go to a small town I am familiar with- Sidney By The Sea. I feel incredibly conspicuous. My DSLR camera seems to be huge in my hands, emitting a beacon that draws attention wherever I go. I feel like a voyeur, and hesitate to take a photo of a person without their knowledge.
Being a voyeur. There is a negative connotation to being described as such, feeling as if one is a creep. It has become a seedy metaphor for wrong doing, for spying, for questionable, if not criminal, activity. Yet wherever we are, when out photographing our surroundings we are just that, voyeurs. It is the intention that matters. The motive. Are we being gratuitously sensation seeking, trying to meet some questionable need, or are we seeking to explain, create something meaningful, to tell a story with our lens? Photography can therefore be seen as a reflection of both our conscious and unconscious selves, it speaks to who we are in that moment the camera clicks.
I notice buildings, angles, shadows, and colours. It feels comfortable to shoot them, their impersonality providing permission. Taking images of buildings eases me into the community. I stand far away from people subjects, and begin to take images. Slowly it begins to feel easier, most folk do not know they are frozen in time in my hands. I notice how people stop to let me take my shot, even apologise for being in the way.
Street photography intersects with architecture photography. But buildings can speak too, they have a history, and create a feeling, an ambience, that add to the character of the town, positively or not so. London is described as a number of villages, and it is true. Districts closely adjacent to one another can be polar opposites, well-heeled to down trodden within a hundred yards. Like Gastown and the Vancouver East side.
I have always been able to become absorbed in and absorbed by my surroundings, however long I am there, be it a fleeting visit or a prolonged stay. It's as if I can quickly belong there, whether it is a stately home, an urban street or the beach. The place and myself give and take with each other.
The images I took on this first shoot were variable in quality, and not creatively interesting. You can see some of them them in the previous blog posts below. However, it was the doing that mattered this time, the going out there and testing myself. Next time I hope it will be less tense, and I get more comfortable photographing people.
© David Axon
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