I am using this and the following exercises to further develop my approach to photographing strangers from a technical and a compositional standpoint. Of key interest to me is to work through different approaches to camera handling and the capture of truly candid moments. At the same time I also want to explore what I want to portray aesthetically, even to develop a style.
During my landscape course I found myself developing a very clear style, crisp detailed imagery, with strong contrast and colour, coupled with a very keen sense of geometry. How will this apply to social documentary, will I develop a different style? I am consciously thinking about "The Americans" when out taking photographs, but from a subject/narrative sense, not from a stylistic sense.
Another comment made by my tutor during my introductory call has lodged in my brain, slow down and think about what you shoot. I had started to approach this course with a street mentality, thinking that good social documentary images need the decisive moment of Cartier-Bresson coupled with the manic energy of Garry Winogrand. The trouble is that this isn't me, I like to take a considered approach to what I photograph and spend time thinking about framing and positioning. I still do take too many photographs! So I am determined to slow down and develop techniques that enable me to capture the "action" but in a more considered way.
Turning to the subject of this project, I have pulled 8 photographs from recent shoots that feature 2 people in different situations. The first image is a simple one of 2 Chinese tourists walking through the park, an opportunistic grab shot. I have conventionally framed the photograph to have them entering the frame.
The next photograph is an example of slowing down and thinking. Rather than hunting my subjects I waited for them to come to me. I found the windows with their displays interesting, so framed a shot with them as the background. I then waited until something happened in the space between the windows, in this case a couple walking by. In of itself this is not an interesting photo, but it does represent a key development in how I am approaching photography of strangers. Standing in one spot until I become the background enables me to create far more candid shots.
This is only just a shot of two people, they occupy a very small part of the frame. Oddly I was thinking about Roger Fenton when I made this photograph, there is a Boules tournament on and the scattered balls reminded me of the canon balls in his signature photograph. At another level the scattered belongings and beer bottles have a narrative of their own.
Another comment from my tutor was in response to my own observation that photographing strangers in Munich is tough as people are very reluctant to be photographed. There is a cultural distrust of photographs, stemming from the use of photographic evidence to condemn the innocent during the Nazi and Communist regimes. My tutor suggested photographing people avoiding being photographed and use that as a statement in its own right.
It is summer in Munich and the city is full of tourists. The next two shots capture some of these people enjoying the city. In the first a couple try to pose interestingly for an off photo camera. In the second the two guys simply look like they are having a great time. On the whole I have tried to frame to the side of the image, however, in the second photo the central placement of the figures works because of the clear interaction between the two guys.
This was a tricky shot, they spotted me as I framed them and a hard stare was forthcoming, but I still did not get bitten, so am developing my thicker skin.
Finally I like shots that look down on people and telescope their bodies. This has a sense of movement.
Shooting two people versus one? It changes the dynamic as there can be interaction and the frame gets better used, however, the visual problem is fairly similar. What I am learning is to work the streets in a more considered and less frantic, shoot, move, shoot style.
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