my favorite part of the guggenheim wasn’t the art — it was observing people observe the art, their heads craned to squint at the skylight, their hands pointing at the different exhibits. there’s that word, sonder, to describe the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. i adore the camera’s ability to peel back a stranger’s layers and project a story. on the 6 line uptown, i listened to dhruv’s new album, which he sums up as “maximal, intimate, soulful.” i stared out the window, submerged in dissonance, as the outside blurred: “chaos, in a musical way.”
my go-to weekend activity is going on photowalks with a friend. we pick a neighborhood or an activity and explore through our 35mm lens. i’m a chinatown frequenter, but i’m normally rushing through the streets, weaving through the crowd on the narrow roads and dodging people carrying packages in search of a $1 char siu bun. rarely do i stand still, especially in a street as well-trafficked as mott.
photography forces me to slow down and submit myself to my surroundings. i’m easily impatient and overly jittery, so sitting still in one place isn’t my usual style. i’m also usually chatty — this is a rare moment when i shut up.
ever since last year, i’ve zoned in on street photography as my favorite style, over landscape and portrait. it’s a style that invites a trigger finger. the window of opportunity for a shot is so short: you’re moving, your subject is moving, other people are moving, so keep your head down and your hand poised to shoot.
i’ve been trying to develop a style, and I think my ideal photo treats setting as a character alongside the subjects. capturing people is still paramount — what are eyes for if not to see one another — i want to see how people interact with the setting.
in a book on cinematography, it comments that good directors treat the setting as another character. in this personal movie, treat the city as another beast. hear the low rumble underneath your feet that threatens to swallow you whole. culture feels visceral in nyc. aesthetic sensibilities pop out on the street even the way passerby carry themselves is distinct
but crowds can feel constricting, especially when you are untethered from a companion or a purpose. i mytholize it; the open jaws of a subway swallowing commuters whole,
tattoeed with words, pockets of vulnerability on your morning commute.
the art of the cull
to cull is baseline standards as well as a judgement of taste — whats the intuition you’ve developed to guide your decisions?
street photography humbles the notion of a stranger. this photowalk we de()cided to shoot in b&w first. take color away and you’re forced to focus on light & shadow, form & function.
negative space
hit rate
the process of taking the photo is only half the battle - the editing process can take just as long. most of my photos are not going to turn out well.
this video by sean tucker breaks down the four layers of a good street photograph:
- one layer (aesthetic)
- this is where content resides
- easy templates
- two layer (subject/story)
- three layer (motion / action)
- fourth layer (magic) (alchemy layer — that secret sauce, the little bit of magic, that ephemeral ‘something special’)
im still stuck on the aesthetic layer. this one lends well to mimicry. it’s the type that’s easy to post on instagram. related to creative intertia — its easy to replicate aesthetic behavior as pattern-matching creatures.
some of the best street photographers relentelessly cull their work. robert frank took 27K+ photographers, whittled down to just 83 for his book “the americans”
guilt
“Pell Street was a favorite for photographers because the narrow street gave the camera the ability to compress the vertical Chinese signage from the buildings, so they could fit more “exotic” imagery in the lens.” academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6980&context=gc_etds
zooming out
i cycle through a couple of hobbies — sketching, photography, and writing — and the best way to articulate a common theme is how they arise from people watching.
ambition
what is your career-defining moment? my friend just started a new job and im living for his excitement vicariously. he’s asked me about the times where i’ve felt on top of the world. i realize that my ambition can be boiled down to chasing down that it moment. the glory shot that would define my photography career — the chapbook that this is not to say im chasing one hit wonders —ooo just that all of withering, dilly dallying, is worth it if it builds up to