Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Stranger than fiction

I saw a man on the metro today who's picture I wanted to take. He was wearing a homemade Obama shirt and a handpainted cap that said 'Vote 2008'. Neither the shirt or the cap were particularly beautiful (nor was the dude). Seeing him just evoked emotion in me. I could sense his hope and excitement in this election, and I was moved by this. I wanted to somehow capture it...capture him. Unfortunately, the most I did was have this conversation in my mind. I worried that other people on the metro would hear me ask and think me weird. I worried it was too early in the morning to be so forward. I worried my little camera made me look like a poser.

I'm envious of the project Hula Seventy is undertaking and how she is forcing herself outside of her comfort zone. I often pass people I would like to photograph but usually only resort to trying to sneak a photo in. How will I ever move any closer to visual anthropology if I can't even do this simple thing? This summer I'm challenging myself to photographing at least one stranger who catches my eye.

4 comments:

  1. Please for the love of all that is holy, do this and let me know how you get on. This is one of the biggest bug-bears I have to get over myself if I ever want to get better at photographing people, rather than having the usual raft of hills, rocks and sheep (none of which can answer back... except the sheep, not that they'd have any reason to you understand...)

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  2. I would SO do this if 1) my camera didn't look like a toy from a Cracker Jack box (a bigger camera would give the illusion of greatness), and 2) I had any talent whatsoever when it came to photographer.

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  3. I want to make a political mix CD with Radiohead's "Electioneering" and then a section of songs that remind me of each candidate. Of course the 3 candidates since it seems like Hilary C and Barack O will be battling 4 eva!

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  4. ant - I will definitely report back. Fingers crossed.

    canary - I'm not saying I'm a good enough photographer to do it and also have a similar camera issue. Mine's pink for goodness sake! That said, I'll never get better unless I try.

    scarlet - You know I'm going to hold you to that mix.

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