RE: [Leica] interacting with strangers -- a very important element of photography

["Jeffery Smith" <jsmith45@bellsouth.net>]

Kyle,

Thanks for the mini-lesson on interacting with strangers. I was commencing
to photograph an elderly man with binoculars on a jetty in Lake Ponchartrain
(the crane on the jetty was my week 51 PAW). I tried to strike up a
conversation with him by asking him if he was bird watching, but his face
said otherwise. He then told me that he was searching for the body of his
nephew whose flatboat had capsized in the lake 4 days earlier. I would have
loved to have gotten an image of the obvious pain and swollen, weary eyes
but I would have felt like a heel. I'm sure that there would have been a way
to approach him anyway, but I was out of my league on this one.

I'll try that schmoozing book ASAP.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA



> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of kyle
> cassidy
> Sent: Tuesday, January 01, 2002 11:08 AM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: [Leica] interacting with strangers -- a very important element
> of photography
>
>
> steve sed:
>
> >Along the way I was saying to Guy how I really envied Kyle and
> his ability
> >to interact with strangers, for example within 15 minutes of arriving in
> >Bucharest he was in a sewer shooting street kids (an
> exaggeration Kyle, but
> >you know what I mean),
>
> i feel compelled to point out that i don't have any innate ability to chat
> people up, it's an entirely learned/forced skill that i've only very
> recently dabbled with. i'm actually a dreadfully shy person (believe it or
> not) and walking up to strangers makes me wither. however. there are some
> times when you just have to grit your teeth and charge the cannon. (so to
> speak). the resulting photo will last for years and years, but the initial
> discomfort of walking up to someone and asking only lasts a few
> seconds.  i
> learned this in a mary ellen mark class a couple of years back --
> as you all
> know, that woman can talk anybody into letting her photograph
> them. she made
> me realize that, at least for certian styles of photography, being able to
> walk up to someone and fire up a conversation is 1000 times more important
> than the camera you're shooting with. especially if you're
> shooting in a new
> and unfamiliar place. meeting one person can provide you with an instant
> network of connections.
>
> i recommend reading "the vault guide to schmoozing" -- which is about $14
> from amazon. it's basically a book about how to strike up
> conversations with
> strangers, largely written for business people, but it all
> carries over into
> photography. one great suggestion it gives is to always have a followup
> question. you start with "do you come here often" they say "yes"
> and unless
> you're prepared, the conversation dies there. so you ask "i've never heard
> of any of these beers before, do you know anything about them?" and your
> off.
>
> another key point that i learned from mary ellen is that with a few
> exceptions, everybody wants to be photographed. case in point. about five
> years ago, back in my wild days, i had purple hair about four feet long
> (http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/k&n.gif) and was in new york with
> linda and a couple of our more, um, dramatic looking friends
> (http://elvis.rowan.edu/~cassidy/goth/can.gif). we were visiting the
> metropolitian museum of art and on the front steps these two people ran up
> to us and said "oh my god, we're from kansas, can we get our picture taken
> with you pretending that you know us?" because we were the punks on the
> subway that everybody was afraid of and you know what? it made our day. we
> were all tickled pink to be in photos with these two people from kansas.
> flip it around. what would you say if someone asked you? the key
> when asking
> someone if you can photograph them is to have a viable reason "can i take
> your picture" isn't necessarily the best opening line, "i'm doing a photo
> essay on this park and i'm wondering if it would be alright if i took your
> photograph" is better. (mary ellen says "never lie" but joan lupton says
> "oh, i lie all the time." it's a judgement call -- i stick with the truth
> myself.)
>
> better still if you have a couple of your images on your person.
> i recommend
> getting some postcards made from www.modernpostcard.com ($99 for 500) then
> you have something to hand out, people know what your work is
> like and they
> know you're not some random pervert. rather, you are a specific
> pervert with
> a post card.
>
> kc
>
>
>
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