Street photography during difficult times

And by the way, my 401k is about wiped out so Im a bit panic stricken myself.
Luckily Im not retiring for 20-30 years. If at all. So we're all affected by this.
 
At least you guys can get away with street photography without getting arrested, beaten up or stabbed :(

Sadly here in the UK if the public don't get you first, the police will, people are getting acosted by security guards, policemen or members of the public left right and center.

//Jan
 
I have had this absurd day today. First having a business lunch at a restaurant called Amerikalinjen (The America Line) situated in the old facilities of the ticket office of the Atlantic steamers going between Oslo and New York in the old days. This restaurant is a few blocks down the road from Oslo Stock Exchange. In comes this stock trader eating alone. He orders three large hamburgers - 'large restaurant hamburgers', huge steaks at 80 NOK each, not these tiny ones that McDonald serves the teenagers. He chews them down within a few minutes, between nervous ticks... Oslo Stock Exchange fell 10% today...

Then I went 'down the street', where a hair cut costs a fraction of up town, where the Turkish imigrants rule, - for my haircut. In poor Norwegian, but with a lot of temperament and gesticulation, I was told 'what was wrong with Norway these days'; while the men were deciding before it is now the women that has 'taken over'. Distaster! Hooked down in the chair, I dared not to opose, but meakly I told him that 'I did not care' as long as she allowed me to have my beer, every now and then. Alcohol! The next evil (after women), - by Allah! I was close to being stoned.

No wonder this country is going under...

No, I did not bring my camera. How do I catch that kind of sentiments on the sensor?
 
Nh3 said:
I have been quite tempted to take my camera and go to the financial district and photograph people and the displays showing the fall in stocks and other typical photographs of the financial sector in crisis and worried stock brokers, but I can't seem to motivate myself to go ahead with it.
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Personally I think you'll regret it. When you come to talk to friends/family in 10 or 20 years time of "The Crash of '08" you'll be thinking about the photographs you ought to have taken.

I disagree with some of the sentiment expressed here about the pleasure aspect. Everyone here (excluding the professional brigade) takes photographs for pleasure.
 
emraphoto said:
i'll offer up what little advice i have... i have a bit of experience with shooting people in the street.

there is two ways you can go at it, and i think you should (as a matter of fact i bet someone's already at it). 1/ is the street "poaching" style. uncognito, stealthy, unseen... whatever you want to call it.
2/ talk to the people. engage them, listen to their story and let them tell it. you will get far better photo's and folks will be way more receptive.

good luck

john
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there is another way ...

i do not hide what i am doing but i am not all that friendly either, i rarely talk to anyone on the street or in the market.
maybe a smile sometimes...
 
The OP wasn't about taking photographs exclusively of people. Nh3 did mention
Nh3 said:
...the displays showing the fall in stocks and other typical photographs of the financial sector in crisis
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While Nh3 feels that snapping people in extremis is intrusive (I agree - I wouldn't want to intrude into anyone's grief without their expressed consent), I see no reason at all why one shouldn't capture some non human souvenirs for posterity.
 
Approximately how high is your horse? Just curious.

EDIT: This is now completely out of context. The post it refered to has been deleted; the comment was in reference to a post that is partially quoted in Number 34.
 
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Pitxu said:
There's no shortage of money for the American missiles and bombs which are now raining down on Pakistani villages. Those who can are fleeing their homes in fear for their lives and congregating in make-shift refugee camps with no sanitary facilities, very little medical help and no food.
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...but probably no shortage of photographers on hand to bear witness.
 
dave lackey said:
Well,

I just lost my job. I have no employment, no hopes of finding a job in my field, no car and no money.

Would I object to you taking my picture? No, not as a photographer I wouldn't. As a recently canned, pissed-off employee who walked out the door, I wouldn't have cared less, personally.

In fact, I am now documenting my own misery photographically.

YMMV, but that is how I am dealing with it along with exercise and chocolate!:D:(
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Ow...

My last full-time job was vaporized shortly after 9/11, along with most of my savings. Not fun. (Interestingly, it was after all that when I decided to toss my whole AF SLR system for my current, smaller RF system.) Wouldn't mind taking a look at the results of your new photo project. Best of luck with everything.

As far as Nh3's topic goes: I think it's all a matter of approach. IMO, you can't document what's around you too effectively without both an open eye and heart, and end up with a range of emotions on the emulsion. Furthermore, you're reaction to those images can, and often will, change with time...I'm thinking about Winogrand's dictum of sitting on photographs for a while, sometimes a long while, before really taking a good look at them. How you feel about something you've taken shortly after you've taken it can be tricky: the photo emotionally-disheveled floor trader you just snapped stepping outside for a smoke might say one thing to you the moment you get to look at it in print or on the screen, and another thing to you six months or a year from now.

It's a worthwhile, albeit touchy subject. Glad you brought it forward, Nh3.


- Barrett
 
Nh3 said:
I feel its too intrusive and almost predatory to photograph people when they're 'down'. I think photography should create awareness, not gloat on other people's misery. Photographing a famine would be informative, photographing downtown stock brokers in panic is gloating.
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Once again you go to make outlandish claims.

There is a difference between 'preying' on individuals and observing and communicating with people. I have absolutely no issues or problems with photographing anyone under any circumstances, so long as I know my motives are true. (Which I do, so therefore no issues.) Obviously, if you truly care you will talk with people and get their responses and feelings. It's all about better understanding a situation, and the only way to do that is through communication.


What is the point to photographing if you are going to be too scared to go out there and do what needs to be done?

Images are out there to be made, but it takes a person with the guts and skills to go out there and make them. It also takes someone with a strong moral and ethical compass as well.


If you take your stance, then half of the images from 9/11, WWII, and any other significant and even seemingly insigificant tragedy in this world would have never been shown to the public, and thus never had the impact on society that they have.


Lets face the truth here. You are not willing to go outside of your own comfort zone and do what one has to do in order to make emotional and profound images. Yes, you do not necessarily have to always focus on doom and gloom, but there is something to be said about all forms of observation, whether it is of happiness, joy, sadness, misery, regret, or any other human emotion that can be at least slightly portrayed through photography.
 
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Well, I would have no pity taking photographs of the any bank trader being down, Monopoly is over, give back the Ferrari's and get a decent job.
 
But, I'm on the verge of saying something very "not nice." I shall disengage. Good day, Pitzoo.
 
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As long as one has respect for the people one shoots as human beings deserving of that respect, I think photographs of people when they are not smiling are fine.

Considering the financial district, I would not head down there to get pictures of people frowning. I'd take pictures of the places and signs. It's a historic document of a moment in time. I wouldn't take a picture just because someone was upset. If they happen to be in a nice shot, then so be it. But if the shot depends on you waiting until you see some frowning people, it's kind of a reflection of your own mood, not a general condition everybody feels.

I was driving home from an especially long and busy day of work today (we buy and sell servers, I build them), listening to the litany of economic woes on the radio today, and getting kind of tired of it. Then while in stop and go traffic, a group of elementary school girls started waving and smiling at me as I crept by. One couldn't help smiling and waving. I wondered what the people around me were seeing, but I was now in a good mood :)
 
Pitxu said:
There's no shortage of money for the American missiles and bombs which are now raining down on Pakistani villages. Those who can are fleeing their homes in fear for their lives and congregating in make-shift refugee camps with no sanitary facilities, very little medical help and no food.

I wouldn't worry about snapping a few Wall Street gamblers down on their luck.
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Please keep this propagandistic crap for political forums. Thank you.
 
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