Re: [Leica] street shooting, the good side

["Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net>]

Godfrey,
Very well spoken. You have a great outlook.
Steve
Annapolis
- ----------
>From: Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>
>To: "Leica Users Group" <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
>Subject: [Leica] street shooting, the good side
>Date: Tue, Sep 21, 1999, 3:58 PM
>

>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
>
>
>