jsrockit
Moderator
Jerome, now you've done it... when you come back, we will bring you to more interesting places.
Some thoughts coming back from NYC
- Thread starter Lauffray
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Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Imagine walking down the street and seeing this haircut. And, then, walking half a block more, seeing someone else with the same haircut.
NYC Westside in the 20's.
Lauffray has a point.
Rob,
As you know, I don't get my hair cut that often, and on my last haircut I made a mistake and went to a new stylist for a cut where my hair was somewhat butchered. Thankfully my hair is still long enough for a ponytail and a healthy dose of hair epoxy glues down all the layers that remain.
As shown above Asian hair can be rather unruly. Kinda resembles the bad case of bed head I had back in the seventies when they took my photograph for my hack license. Also back in the seventies there were very few Asian cab drivers. LOL.
I might get another haircut later this month before June with yet another new stylist. Hopefully everyone will still recognize me. LOL.
Cal
Calzone
Gear Whore #1
Jerome,
The weekend you were here was kinda dead. John and I generally shoot every week. Originally we wanted to do the "Dance Parade" and capture everyone getting ready in the staging area near the Flat Iron Building.
Last year I kinda stumbled into the event because I was looking for all those people claiming it was the end of the world in Union Square, it was as if they all ascended, but they were all hiding from me in Times Square I would later learn.
Anyways the best thing at the Dance Parade staging area was this Pole Dancing School float last year. Imagine being backstage as a group of girls kinda put on a private show for my Mamiya 6 equipt with a 50/4.0 wide angle on 22d Street.
Anyways I did get one shot of the end of the world people. I was heading onto the subway when I saw this old guy with a sign who looked like farmer from Iowa holing a sign stating the world would end on a certain future date and that now was the time to repent. It just so happened that in the background was a sign and the stairs leading down for the downtown number 6 train. It was a marginal exposure that at a slow shutter speed on my M6, but it also happened to be my last frame on my roll. LOL.
Sometimes its just being in the right place at the right time with your camera.
Cal
thegman
Veteran
I guess the problem with street photography is that you're shooting people just going about their business, to/from work etc. It can be very boring, because 99% of us do it every day ourselves. If you go out at night, however, you can probably catch all kinds of drunken antics, but it's probably an unpleasant experience all round.
robklurfield
eclipse
Lauffray
Invisible Cities
This brings me back to that question, is trying to find that interesting, uncommon thing a waste of time and should we instead focus on documenting things the way they are ?
daveleo
what?
Nothing is a waste of time. Coming home with no great pictures forces you (if you keep an open mind) to re-think "why did that happen"? and maybe restructure your expectations or your style or your agenda or your . . . .
As to "what we should focus on" ? . . . . hey . . . it's your camera, it's your mind, your eye, your gameplan.
Takes me about 6 visits to a spot to "understand" it and I don't shoot people or moving objects. So I think you need to go back to NYC at some point and maybe slow down while you're there and get to understand the place and understand what it is you want to make pictures of.
jippiejee
Well-known
Actually, I really enjoyed seeing John's NYC photos. One man's ordinary is another man's foreign territory, looking completely different from my own neck of the woods.
Lauffray
Invisible Cities
I'm not saying that it _is_ ordinary, I'm asking whether it is a matter of perception and if others have had these questions as well.
Perhaps it's also because I'm still on the east coast, not too far from home, so it isn't really a big visual change.
Perhaps it's also because I'm still on the east coast, not too far from home, so it isn't really a big visual change.
jsrockit
Moderator
If you're talking about me, thanks. :angel: I agree about foreign territories. It's only ordinary to those who live there.
sparrow6224
Well-known
I think the art of photography is the art of revealing what things really look like, revealing too how light and dark (and for a few of you whacky people, color) contributre to our knowledge of how, at their essence, things are. Thus what is real gets made more real, framed, isolated, taken out of time. What is visually abstract in the world too is rendered more abstract by this framing, this isolation and petrification in time.
The world in matters of style, in cultural product, has indeed become shockingly more uniform over the last 30 years. I used to go two hours west of NYC and could not believe how the young people dressed. Now it's all the same. I returned to Europe after a twenty year absnce and found the same thing: Paris in 1984 had a look very different from Rome, the people presented themselves in very different ways. Now, more or less the same. But behind these artifacts of clothes and style something still remains. Inside a NYC subway car, for instance, still looks different from inside shots of metro communiting trains I've seen anywhere else. The architecture the light the ads the expressions on paople's faces, their postures and insanely large bags.
I livedin Harlem for a long time and I remember one day on the bus crossing 125th street that there were so many types: old black ladies with tie up shoes and flowers on their hats; men in dashikis and with square caps I don't know the name of, also African. Muslim garb. Guys in work uniforms, the blue and green kind with buttoned breast pockets. A man in a fancy elaborate pin stripe suit, shiny shoes and a big hat. If you were down on Fifth Ave amng the white ladies it would be much duller. But I warn you when you start snapping pictures in harlem as if you're visiting the wildlife preserve, you will get some angry comments. wide angles of 21-24-28mm work best. Suck a lot in.
The world in matters of style, in cultural product, has indeed become shockingly more uniform over the last 30 years. I used to go two hours west of NYC and could not believe how the young people dressed. Now it's all the same. I returned to Europe after a twenty year absnce and found the same thing: Paris in 1984 had a look very different from Rome, the people presented themselves in very different ways. Now, more or less the same. But behind these artifacts of clothes and style something still remains. Inside a NYC subway car, for instance, still looks different from inside shots of metro communiting trains I've seen anywhere else. The architecture the light the ads the expressions on paople's faces, their postures and insanely large bags.
I livedin Harlem for a long time and I remember one day on the bus crossing 125th street that there were so many types: old black ladies with tie up shoes and flowers on their hats; men in dashikis and with square caps I don't know the name of, also African. Muslim garb. Guys in work uniforms, the blue and green kind with buttoned breast pockets. A man in a fancy elaborate pin stripe suit, shiny shoes and a big hat. If you were down on Fifth Ave amng the white ladies it would be much duller. But I warn you when you start snapping pictures in harlem as if you're visiting the wildlife preserve, you will get some angry comments. wide angles of 21-24-28mm work best. Suck a lot in.
KenD
Film Shooter
Perhaps you have gone from from one North American major urban center to another, and are looking for a very-different-look-and-feel - which might not be different. Perhaps you should go shoot street in Drummondville or Lac Saint-Jean or Trios-Rivierres or somewhere in the 1000 Islands? Or even the Gaspesie!
jsrockit
Moderator
Yes, perhaps this. I've never felt out of place in Montreal. I find it similar in feel to NYC in many ways.
Lauffray
Invisible Cities
That must be it then, I don't know if the expectations were unrealistic, I mean we are 340 miles apart after all, but anyway I suppose these observations would be more interesting if I compared farther or more different cities
ChipMcD
Well-known
Imagine walking down the street and seeing this haircut. And, then, walking half a block more, seeing someone else with the same haircut.
NYC Westside in the 20's.
Lauffray has a point.
Yeah, I see that all the time here in Wilmington.
whitecat
Lone Range(find)er
Nice photo.
furcafe
Veteran
This is true. I think it's just the natural consequence of the advent of both the internet & inexpensive air travel over the last 35 or so years. Nowadays, most fashionable, & even not-so-fashionable, people read the same style blogs, etc. & jet to the same places. As KenD noted, there's probably a bigger difference between non-urban parts of Quebec & Montreal than between Montreal & NYC.
If the OP wants to stay in North America & see something different, he would need to go someplace that at least has a different climate &/or cultural mix, like LA, Miami, or Mexico City.
If the OP wants to stay in North America & see something different, he would need to go someplace that at least has a different climate &/or cultural mix, like LA, Miami, or Mexico City.
Lauffray
Invisible Cities
I think this is the consequence of what you were saying, to see something a bit different we have to go increasingly further.
As many have suggested, I am guilty of staying mainly in the cities, although I've been to smaller towns like Quebec city and Ottawa, I rarely go out in the countryside
furcafe
Veteran
If you want to stick to street shooting in big cities in North America, I would highly recommend Mexico City.
