Weekly Photograph - Man in Wheelchair
21.11.06 @ 12:01 am
Recently, I went off with Dennis to take some shots for a photo project shown here a couple weeks ago. I have talked quite a bit about my struggles with photographing people. I am slowly gaining courage, but it has been a slow process. I tend to take photos as a passive observer of scenes, engaging the subject seems so, well, not passive. This photo was actually used in the photo project mentioned, but I enjoyed it so much that I decided to make it the photo of the week.
I am not trying to defend my motives from taking a rear-end perspective of unknowing subjects, I totally admit that the largest motivator for this angle is my motivation not to engage the subject. However, I find something very real about taking a photo of someone who does not know they are being photographed. Is it rude? Arguably. Is it invasive? I do not see how you could say otherwise. I am fully aware that photographing people without their knowledge is quite unfair to the subject - but you get to capture a side of the person that would vanish once they are aware they are the centerpiece of a photo.
You do not get to see this person's face. There is obviously no expression that is immediately seen. Nonetheless, the person's mere presence gives the scene an emotion. I really have come to like this idea of creating an emotion through a person's existence in its surroundings. I find that magical.
5th street, black and white, jessie street, man, Photography, san francisco, weekly wheelchair
August 28th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
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Seems to be a certain contemplation going on in this picture that we might naturally associate somehow with the wheelchair but this man is just like any other and the chances that he is contemplating his situation in the wheelchair would only be as good as the number of situations in his life plus one. Could be a girlfriend, a job, his car, his mother or any number of other things we no nothing about from the photo. How many times when you thought no one was looking took a moment and replayed your problems or even a joy in your life for a moment. You just appear to have captured one of those random moments here or at least that is what it appears like.
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