[Leica] street shooting, the good side

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

These conversations have been concentrating on the dark side of 
photographing strangers or street photography, or whatever. I would like 
to report that there is also a positive side and I've benefitted from it 
on several occasions.

I like taking pictures of people. They are in general more animated and 
variable than rocks or trees, thus much more interesting. Not to say that 
I don't also like to photograph static subjects or have a thing against 
rocks or trees, but people are the most enticing subjects in the world 
for me.

Many times I will be out walking with a camera in hand and see some 
interesting knot of folks at a point in the walk. I gravitate there and 
start clicking away. I usually start talking with some of them, since 
we're enjoying a common experience there's usually something to talk 
about. I often ask one or two of the folks I'm talking with if I can take 
their picture. Most of the time they assent. Sometimes, they relate that 
they are also avid photographers and we yak on endlessly about trivia the 
way any jargon-loaded enthusiasts will. Or I find they are motorcyclists 
or movie hounds or readers of books or computer geeks ... Yeah, I relate 
to all these things. 

These kinds of interactions make the photographs more interesting ... 
they mean something more to me than just interesting expressions. From 
time to time, I've had the pleasure of inviting folks like this to join 
me for food, for entertainment, even been hosted by them while I was 
traveling or hosted them when they were passing through my neck of the 
woods. 

I've even had the delight of photographing a lovely woman and becoming 
friends with her, going out together for a time. Hey, anything can happen 
if you let yourself be open to the world.

When I was much much younger, I used to carry a camera down into Harlem, 
Manhattan and the South Bronx, "dangerous" territory by all the 
reckonings of my friends since the people there were often of different 
ethnic backgrounds than mine. I used to photograph a lot of the men and 
women, children, parents and lovers, shopkeepers and street sweepers. 
Many times I was viewed with some suspicion  - "why are you taking 
pictures?" - and I'd respond "because I'm looking at the world and want 
to be sure I remember it the way it really is." Well, maybe not in 
exactly those words, but I always had a picture book, just a little 
self-bound stack of postcard sized photographs which I'd show people. 
They loved them, sometimes they recognized their friends and family in 
some of the pictures and asked for copies. It was always my pleasure to 
give them anything they wanted, even if it meant ripping up the little 
book on the spot. I could always make another. I was never once molested 
or threatened, although I was challenged several times over the years. 
You get a sense for how to relate to people by doing it, I guess.

So what do I do with the photos? Well, I'm happy to send some to whoever 
would like to see them, I like looking at them myself as a remembrance of 
people I've met and places I've been, occasions I've experienced. On 
occasion, I've hung a show with some of them, and if I know the people in 
the pictures I've invited them to attend. They've invariably enjoyed the 
experience when they attended, even if the photo wasn't their favorite 
picture of themself, and felt like they were a celebrity since other 
people recognized them in the pictures. 

Many of these people have become fast friends of mine over the years, 
people who I've come to know through my photography and motorcycles and 
movie interests and computers. The pictures I've made are a part of this 
life that I'm busy living and will last beyond it. They are what I'll 
leave behind for those who care to remember me and the life I've led.

Photography for me is no longer a "professional", for pay, endeavor. I 
stopped doing that in '84 when I decided that I wasn't having much fun at 
it anymore. Now it's a lot more serious: these images are much more 
important to me, even if they are of little interest to any client who's 
underpaying me for them. 

It's helpful to stay sensitive to both the good things that can affect us 
to our benefit as well as the dark things that afflict us in this world. 
An over-sensitivity to the dark side of things brings on fear, suspicion, 
paranoia and constricts our lives. 

Perhaps that's what's wrong with life today. People sit in their locked 
up homes and watch the carefully edited images and sensationalist hype 
spouted at them by the holy television set, news isn't information it's 
infotainment, and people are constricted by their fears of the unknown, 
by the dark side. If only they would walk around and look at the world 
some more, and realize that it's a miraculous place full of amazing stuff 
to see and great people to see it with.

Godfrey