[Leica] How it was

["Johnny Deadman" <deadman@jukebox.demon.co.uk>]

> Telling an irate John Q Public "F off, I've
> got a perfect right to shoot pics of your little girl and I sure don't
> need your permission cause I'm one of the good guys"

If there was any implication that this is what I did, it's horrible and
untrue in every respect.

- -- the woman was NOT angry
- -- I stopped
- -- I talked to her nicely

In fact, for the record, let's go through exactly what DID happen.

I was shooting on the pavement, near a really scuzzy sidewalk noodle bar
crowded with people shovelling noodles into their mouths. There were a
couple of very zoned out street people sharing a bench with a very squeaky
clean japanese tourist. Standing nearby shovelling noodles was a woman, very
carefully dressed, almost certainly involved in either fashion or modelling.
With her was a little girl, coiffured to the nines, very translucent beauty,
also eating noodles, which strangely resembled her hair.

From the demeanor of the woman and the unchildlike appearance of the little
girl, plus a vague familiarity, I had a gut feeling that the little girl was
one of those child models you see in British car ads. They both looked very
out of place. What with the context and the background and the strange
noodle/hair resonance, it was an obvious thing to begin shooting.

As I moved into position in front of the woman, about twelve feet away, and
raised the camera to my eye (I was prefocused and preexposed), we made eye
contact, and the woman immediately place her splayed hand in front of the
child's face. It was a very striking image, because it was the instant
reaction ***of someone who is used to dealing with photographers***. It was
a classic paparazzi image, only strangely inverted.

I may be wrong, but thinking about it later, it supported my hunch that the
girl was a child model. I really think that her mother was concerned that
the photograph if used in a publication might jeopardise an exclusive
modelling contract or something. You may think I'm making it up, of course,
but I worked in Camden Town for 10 years and you get a feel for the kind of
people (Liam Gallagher, Patsy Kensit) who hang out there.

Anyway, the *instant* I saw that outsplayed hand I hit the shutter release.
Without thought. Anyone who believes that the reaction to being photographed
is a legitimate subject for photography would have done the same. I then
lowered the camera, smiled at the woman (as I always do after taking a
picture). She then asked me what I was doing, and I told her. And that was
that.

- --
Johnny Deadman

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine
writing, obey it - whole heartedly - and delete it before sending your
manuscript to press. Murder your darlings"