Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/06/11
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Donal wrote: >I really think it has more to do with attitude than camera. Of course, >a small camera and right attitude together help. > >I remember back when I started shooting and doing a lot of documentary, >that I trained myself (after reading about HCB "disappearing" when he >clicked the shutter) to pull in my energy, to suspend my judgements. >When I did that I went places and shot things and felt invisible, >whether street shooting or inside a situation. This is so very true. A lot of your attitudes are percieved by those around you. If you feel you are an unwanted intruder, then people are going to notice you and resent your being there. If however you act as who me a photographer? I am supposed to be here. You can get the images you need. Recently when photographing people who had lost EVERYTHING in the flooding of Falmouth, Ky. I had this experience. I could litterally shoot with a 20 mm lens in peoples faces with out bothering them. You must identify with your subjects and have compasion for them and they will sense this and not resent your being there with a camera. The people I was photographing were an extended family on one street in an entire subdivision washed away by the Licking river. This was one of the worst natural disasters I have covered and I was once agian amazed by peoples resilliance to bad things happening in their lives. These people (The grandmother, mother, daughter, uncle) all lost their houses (a total of 5 as the uncle was living in one and restoring another) and everything in them. And they spent the day allowing me to folow them around shooting their pictures talking with them sharing with me their life stories of growing up in the neighborhood. >I find that when I suspend judgements, that the discomfort is suddenly >gone--both mine and that of the people I may be around. An uncomfortable photographer is an intruding photographer while one comfortable with the situation and people can blend into the surroundings and dissapear. Harrison McClary hmphoto@delphi.com http://people.delphi.com/hmphoto