Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Fri, 23 Jul 1999 16:21:07 -0400 (EDT)
On Fri, 23 Jul 1999 adin@frontier.net wrote:
> When one yanks out an unusual item in public, the questions fly.
> "whatcha doin, makin' a pitchure or somethin'? "are you makin' a
> video?" "will this be on tv?" ad nauseum (appropriate latin, no?)
> My experience (over the decades) is this: anything less than a polite
> answer (and even a polite "I would love to talk to you AFTER I have
> made my exposure.") will bring cursing and rocks. IF YOU DON'T WANT
> OBSERVERS, PHOTOGRAPH IN PLACES WITHOUT OTHER PEOPLE.
Very well said. And brings back memories -- I photographed for 4 years at
Times Square (pre-Disney), mostly doing my little-old-grey-haired lady
act, which let me take some pictures male photographers assured me they
would have been killed for. But since we're off topic anyway, I add 2
further reminiscences. People OFTEN said "take my picture." I don't know
why, because they didn't expect me to send them a print. And I ALWAYS
obliged.
Those weren't the kind of pictures I was looking for. And mostly they were
in terrible light, stupid settings, dumb expressions & just got discarded
(with 95% of the rest of the 35 mm street shots I might add). But several
of them turned out to have something magical -- an *accident* of
background, pose, scale, whatever, which is all I can do anyway. (Whenever
I see a "great picture" I HATE it in the negative -- my favorites tend to
be what the camera did for me, it has a better eye, is more "creative"
than I am -- but I've said this many times.)
You should hear Nathan Lyons on the subject -- 20 years ago -- saying most
photographers go around with the camera like it was a frame, trying to
slap it over pretty pictures: But THAT'S BEEN DONE, he said. It's over.
Meanwhile, I attempt a gum print of "The Man Who Was Popeye." Wino in
front of the OTB at 42nd St & 7th Ave, bottle in paper bag in hand... He
used to do the voice overs for the Popeye animations in the 30s. Did some
of them on the spot for me: still a remarkable voice of great power from
that wrecked frame -- chanted "Popeye the Sailorman" right out of my
generation's collective childhood, also a perfect Gerald McBoingBoing,
etc. (Doubt a print can convey the flavor of that heartbreaking moment, at
least as I experienced it, but I'll try). Other "take my picture" moments
also turned out to be pure gifts from heaven, especially since, as noted,
the yield is anyway small.
The other interesting thing is the effect of a TRIPOD. I decided to shoot
through glass store front into a porn book shop on 42nd St. Set up my
tripod with flash one night on the sidewalk directly in front of it --
cable release in hand in my pocket. I expected to be, um, let's say, told
to scram & scram quick. Au contraire. Folks wanted to know was I waiting
for the rest of my TV crew... I shot 2 rolls to my heart's content with
never a murmur. I can only conclude this shows CLEARLY -- the power of,
um, the phallic symbol !
Sadly -- but also interestingly -- those pictures were dreck. The harsh
lines of the store front were VERY unattractive, flattening the
highly-charged subject to total boredom. I only bothered printing one or
two and they never went anywhere... Perhaps digitally I can modify the
harsh contrast & get something printable one day -- but I doubt it.
Possibly some documentary interest one day -- but not interesting to me
now as a photograph.
As so often, I'm forced to conclude, at least for my own work, that what's
highly charged with *emotional* or intellectual content isn't necessarily
-- or even probably -- highly charged pictorially. I several times
photographed arrests -- regular cops and/or plainclothes cops, approaching
cars & perps GUNS DRAWN. The street held its collective breath. A VERY
tense moment. The photos were blah.
As for talking with the photographer (specifically in this case Jeffrey)
about his/her "art" -- if someone wanted to talk art to me when I was on
location I would have bopped them...
Judy
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Oct 28 1999 - 21:40:37