Mike,
I'm pleased that you read my post as I'd hoped you would; it also seems to me that you honestly share some of my own thoughts regarding the photographing of other people.
I think the tonalities in your shown image here are great - and no, I see no attempt at 'exploitation' at all there, as it's an image of a structure representing an ethos, more than of individuals, a structure that shows how humble things can also serve useful services: you don't need Harrods if you just want to run a shop!
"Your comment '... to no useful end ..' surely applies to all amateur photography, none of it really has any useful end apart from giving me a buzz for example like finding that shot of the clothes which I had completely forgotten about. I've had a happy day in its company working on it."
Your words above say it all; it's exactly what the late superphotographer Terrence Donovan said in his most often quoted remark, which I'll try to paraphrase: the problem for the amateur is finding a reason to take a photograph. As I've said before, it's where I find myself today, as a retired pro. There simply isn't a pressing need to touch a camera anymore. There is, however, an urgency in the feeling that I have to do something with time, and perhaps the only thing I know how to do well enough to satisfy myself is more of the same. That's a self-constructed noose.
I started a new gallery in my website a year or so ago, called Beautiful Strangers, which was a reaction to a chance encounter late one afternoon when I was out in the old part of Alcudia, looking for atmospherics; I shot some shop displays and stacked sun glasses - and was in the process of doing this stuff when these two girls walked into shot. I didn't resist for a second - I shot. I sometimes wonder about the morality of that, then console myself with the notion that they looked gorgeous, dressed to achieve that, and deserved some pubic gratitude for effort. Consequently, I set out to develop the gallery further, but pretty much nothing happened, which demonstrates yet again, why model agencies are indispensable. You just don't run across much beauty in normal life - you have to go where beauty goes. For example: the whores in Cannes and Porto Cervo were even more delightful to behold than the perfectly pretty, straight girls we took along as models. Go figure one's chances of finding chance beauty in a hick tourist resort. I struck lucky - once!
Regarding your feeling of total ease when wandering about anywhere: being male, alone, yes, I think I'd feel much the same in India but certainly not anywhere in Pakistan, Africa or most European cities. My entire time in the States was one of tension. We were working in Florida on one occasion, on the Atlantic side, and wanted to get some evening beach shots. We drove to the edge of the sea and parked, got out of the car, and never left it. What had been a sea of white faces during the day had become its polar opposite in the evening. The idea of walking out there, the only whites around, with pretty girls and camera stuff, seemed an idiot's choice. Now, whether that was fear bred of tv or press, I don't know. What I do know, is that prior to the shoot I'd arranged to use a specific brand/type of powerboat for some water shots (I think it was a Rampage) and the company had given me their address to go chat and finalise the thing. I asked the receptionist at the hotel how I could get to the boatyard, and he looked at me in surprise. and said you can't go there. I asked why, and he said because you're white! I thought he was overreacting, and so I tried to figure out how to use the grid system and get there - I love boats! To cut a long tale short, we got so far and got lost. We realised that we were, again, the only whites in sight. At that point, boats stopped meaning very much at all, and we went back the way we had come. Now, were we right or were we just scared to death over nothing? I shall never know, and my question is rhetorical.
So yeah, photography's not all smiles and cheer.
Rob
