I fell into street photography very soon after I fell into photography, and even my earliest work could be seen through the lens of a nascent street photographer waiting to be hatched. By my own estimate I was at my peak of street photography capability in 2007-8 and again in 2015-6. Between then and since then I have not made much street work, it has faded from my repertoire, from my skill set, and in its place the more contemplative, personal, and pointed inward work that has come to be what I make most often.
But the streets call to me, and the last two days the call has been very strong. Both days of my weekend I spent a few hours trying to slip back into that mode of shooting, wide, loose, quick, sneaky, from the hip, pretending to not understand my camera, fiddling and snapping surreptitiously. I am rusty, very very rusty, that specific set of skills that good street photography needs has been put away, lost in the mess, and now I can only find bits and pieces, the totality still buried inside me somewhere. Most of all I’ve lost a lot of the nerve I had as a 20 year old, which is shocking because I had no nerve in any other facet of my life, in contrast to me today, 38, more confident and comfortable in my body and in the city than ever before. I guess I’m just scared of conflict, and that will always hold you back.
Here’s a selection of shots from the last two days, some with my Sony a7 & Minolta-m 28/2.8 and others with my og x100 and it’s lovely 35mm-e lens.
That’s all for today, I’m mulling the idea of “working” one street shift a week to really get back to it, hone that skill again, and have it in my back pocket. I do think it informs my other work, and my other work absolutely informs these shots, it’s all one body of photography, no matter how different the genres or images may end up.
xoxo
john