03/04/2022
On Photography 03/03/22
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Photographers have an odd tendency to compartmentalize. One of my favorite street photographers doesn't take photos of his family. A successful fine art large format friend is also into building Armalite platforms and fi****ms but you would never see them or that interest creep into his work. Perhaps a formula for success in the space is a consistency of voice and a careful facade. It definitely is. (Perhaps in every art)
But I want it all. I want to be unlimited. I study street photography and use it as a practice for Life because i want to be unlimited. I want to be able to appease my photographic Daimon, which arrives to me indiscriminate of where I am, who I'm with or what I'm doing.
I don't even know if I like the word street photography anymore. I once called KM a street photographer and he corrected me that he doesn't see himself as such. But I have a print of his from a candid street scene. And I have a print of his that is a portrait of a cat. It's all photography.
But even with a portrait session, I'm hunting for candid moments in a scripted drama. The best models are dancers - and a portrait is an intimate dance.
Effective photography seems to be a dance - a dance of content & form, a dance around pedestrians, a dance for the land, a dance around my friends and family. I developed photos of the holidays and upon seeing them my sister said she didn't even notice that I was shooting. I didn't exist!
I learned to dance on the street.
Perhaps successful photographers are good at setting their stage and knowing their audience. But I just want to dance!
