On the streets

[Mcthecat]

Some shots of street people. All the usual suspects went to the local International Street Performances, i went in the back streets for pics of the excluded ones.

[RSL]

Been hangin with the Occupiers eh Cat?

[Mcthecat]

I was going to London to do just that but they seem to have moved. I'll find em. I just love taking pics of street people. If you stop and chat hey have loads of great stories. But we are lucky in the uk, ours tend not to be armed! Give em a few £' s and snap away.

[Rob C]

I was going to London to do just that but they seem to have moved. I'll find em. I just love taking pics of street people. If you stop and chat hey have loads of great stories. But we are lucky in the uk, ours tend not to be armed! Give em a few £' s and snap away.

Yeah, they all went on holiday to Mallorca.

Do you think it's an agreeable thing to pay them a few quid in order to use them for fun? Does anyone think it's equally pleasant a thing to use them at all?

An interesting side to a rather overplayed genre. But hell, if you can't get a visa for Syria...

Rob C

[Riaan van Wyk]

Do you think it's an agreeable thing to pay them a few quid in order to use them for fun? Does anyone think it's equally pleasant a thing to use them at all?
Rob C

Having lived in a very rural and poor part of my country for six years I have become increasingly uneasy with the notion of exploitation via pictures-if I may call it that. I had initally wondered why when entering a homestead the inhabitants were so aggresive towards the camera.

I later learned that the area I lived in was one of the worst affected by HIV and that it was very popular with GAP students, backpackers, neophite missionaries and well to do foreigners, all on their " save Africa" sabaticals/ campaigns and all had cameras, joyfully capturing the sadness found everywhere, to be used on their blogs, websites, FB pages and whatever for "fundraising." 

The thing is, none of the subjects had any financial benefit from the use of their images as the "save Africa" theme gets boring very quickly and the fervent photographers quickly forget the people's plight as soon as they are on their airconditioned flights back home, memory cards full of pics to use. I eventually learnt that it takes a month of nights where you have no electricity and water to convert even the most staunch activist.

I had the perfect oportunity to shoot a lifetime's worth of pics, but could not get myself to lift the camera.   

 

       

[RSL]

I'm with you Riaan. Iin the thirties, when the Farm Security Administration photographers shot Southern Americans down on their luck, the results often helped the people being photographed, and the photographs themselves became classics. Since then hoboes and others down on their luck have become easy pickings for people who don't understand what street photography is all about and who have the idea that there's something artistic about pictures of unfortunates, when, in fact, pictures of unfortunates have become one of photography's most outrageous cliches.

But Cat's people don't look as if they're especially unfortunate. They look more like the "Occupiers" who deliberately try to appear indigent by wearing hideous clothing and refusing to bathe. On the other hand, Cat hasn't let us know where he is or how old he is, so who knows where he's shooting these folks.

[Rob C]

On a calendar trip in Kenya - I think at the Buffalo Lodge part of the shoot - I was told by one of the staff to avoid photographing the Massai who were just outside the corral because they sometimes resented the attention.

Walking from our rooms to the eatery one night, the 'client' who was with us (unfortunately) voiced his concern at the tall guys with spears that materialised from the dark and accompanied us. To my embarrassment, one replied in faultless English: sir, we are your security...

Kinda shows you on which side of the fence dignity sometimes resides... Assumptions can be so mistaken.

Rob C

[Tony Jay]

On a calendar trip in Kenya - I think at the Buffalo Lodge part of the shoot - I was told by one of the staff to avoid photographing the Massai who were just outside the corral because they sometimes resented the attention.

Walking from our rooms to the eatery one night, the 'client' who was with us (unfortunately) voiced his concern at the tall guys with spears that materialised from the dark and accompanied us. To my embarrassment, one replied in faultless English: sir, we are your security...

Kinda shows you on which side of the fence dignity sometimes resides... Assumptions can be so mistaken.

Rob C

Wonderful recount Rob.
I will think about this for a long time and chuckle.

Regards

Tony Jay

[Mcthecat]

Can i ask a question? What do you guys do for a living?

Me? I had the chance of moving to Germany to work for a top technology comp but decided to work with the the poor. So hey guys, what do you do for a living?

[John R]

Can i ask a question? What do you guys do for a living?

Me? I had the chance of moving to Germany to work for a top technology comp but decided to work with the the poor. So hey guys, what do you do for a living?

I can't really say, but I will say that I am an industrial worker. Good luck on your endeavours.

I very much like your images, especially the black people. The light on them really comes through, like Rembrandt. But the mannerisms and character come through on the others as well. Very nice indeed.

JMR

[Mcthecat]

The reason i ask, is because i got the idea for these pics from two sources. First my day job working with very ill people, drugs, alcohol, poverty homelessness etc is what i encounter each day. Yes i could have a nice office job but i dont. I choose not to. Photography is my stress relief. Im no pro, i never will be. Im not good enough and never will be. I chose to take these pics of people on the streets, one of whom lives on the streets, one a student, one from a foreign land, to highlight that all the many hundreds of photographers who walked by street people, people down on their luck or protesting to get the usual pics of performers at events. I stopped, sat down, talked and gave money to allow the guy to get money for a room for the night. I asked him if i could take his pic and that i was compiling a portfolio of street shots of people excluded from big money making events. He readily agreed. He's a really nice bloke and a tragic story but i hope i instilled some hope that things can get better, stuff i learned from my day job. I went back to the event days later, sought him out and gave him more money. Remember i had the guts to ask, not do some candid pic from a hundred yards then walk away giving nothing, learning nothing. So yes i gave money to a street guy to get a room when all the other photographers walked by and the pic has pricked your concience. By replying it made you think and that's my point.Whether you agree or not, it made you think.

Secondly, i met a guy from Canada who was performing at the same event. He rode a big motorcycle and trailer so being a biker i was attracted to his story. He told me he rode all over the world on his bike doing street performances. He gave up a 300,000 Canadian dollar job in I.T to tour around. He got sick of the life and decided he'd be a lot poorer and a lot happier. A bit like me i guess. He was another example that made me think and he to let me take his pic because i asked.

So next time you have a latte, watch the news then attend an event, dont just walk by. Stop and think. One day it could be you. And if you ask nicly, maybe they will let you take that close up pic and maybe you'll learn a little.

[Rob C]

Mthecat

Nice tale, but you miss a point: almost everybody over twenty-five knows about the way and state of the world. That you choose to join, do something in/about or document a particular part of it is your call; that that implies any special qualities in you compared with anyone else is unfounded: it's just your thing. Period. As for making anyone think, those thoughts have entered and passed through so many heads so many times that there is now fatigue, just as with tsunamis, famines and any other form of disaster or deprivation, especially where some can see a certain ammount of self-infliction in the situations.

To me, especially with your biker mate, it resonates to the music of slumming it on AmEx. Just like some water gypsies here in Spain.

Rob C

[Mcthecat]

So Rob, you think we know about he state of the world? Lol. I won't go further. Anyway, must dash, got lives to save.....Anyway, next time you pick up the camera dash of on that photoshoot, make comment on people you don't know or subjects you know nothing about, think of me and the street people. The ones I asked to take a picture of and whose story I asked if I could tell. I have very special qualities that enamours me to the down and outs, it's just I choose not to reveal them. Death and disaster doesn't pass through me Rob, it may in you, it doesn't in me. You know nothing about me Rob, nothing at all. Have a nice day. Enjoy the latte. Lol...

[Rob C]

So Rob, you think we know about he state of the world? Lol. I won't go further. Anyway, must dash, got lives to save.....Anyway, next time you pick up the camera dash of on that photoshoot, make comment on people you don't know or subjects you know nothing about, think of me and the street people. The ones I asked to take a picture of and whose story I asked if I could tell. I have very special qualities that enamours me to the down and outs, it's just I choose not to reveal them. Death and disaster doesn't pass through me Rob, it may in you, it doesn't in me. You know nothing about me Rob, nothing at all. Have a nice day. Enjoy the latte. Lol...

What to say? A saint in street clothing. With a camera, of course.

Rob C

[Steve Weldon]

"Street Shooting" I think is most often misunderstood.

If we take pictures of people "on the street" only because they look unique, or different, or strange, whatever.. then there is little difference from photographing animals in the zoo for the same reasons.

This would be in contrast to the same people on the same street and at the same time.. but composed in such a way so the image tells a story about the people and it's the story which is different and not the way the people look.

I deal with this often with clients who come into Bangkok and other parts of SEA who desire a workshop on "street shooting" because they fancy the way another race looks or perhaps behaves as compared to their own.   If this is their reason then I deal with it by recommending they hire a safari guide. 

In SEA we have a wide variety of interesting folks.  The Hill Tribe People (many different tribes),. the Long Necks, different but special immigrant groups, the poor, the poor and disabled,  beggars, bar girls, monks, rural Thai/Lao/Burmese/Malay, Southern Islamic insurgentss, refugees on several borders, and my personal favourite the loud/rude/obnoxious odd looking western tourists..

I very high percentage of my clients get off the plane hoping to make as many captures of these "odd looking" or "poor beggars" or "disadvantaged " characters as they can manage, with nary a though towards their plight or story and rarely do these "street photographs" even being to tell the story.

If looking different makes someone a good street photography subject, then how will you feel when our economies drop further and bus loads of Indian or Chinese tourists  disembark in your neighbourhood to grab a few captures of your children, parents, or anyone they deem different enough to spark comment or conversation back home.  Of course without a story one will only gawk so long.

Even in a zoo or wild animal park the best images tell a story.

To use these images to start.. do you like them because the subjects look different and maybe odd/poor/unkempt.. or because they're telling a story.   Either one of them could be captured 10-20x over on in most any US big city.. and sure we do street photography in such areas based on even less han looks.  But if we don't want to diminish their value as members of the human race.. then we should be telling their story.. and to their benefit if at all possible.