Here is the next video I have created using some of the “warmer” images from my last stint in San Francisco. I went for a “feel-good” approach and was quite pleased with the result…I hope you enjoy it!
The San Francisco Street Project Video
If you missed my last video check it out here…
{ 1 comment }
We’ve all seen them on the street…the vendors of homemade trinkets and eclectic imports from far away lands. They sometimes offer decent opportunity for street shots, but not consistently with enough interest for me.
The Poet
Click here for a larger view…
This guy changed that perspective. I was roaming some vendor spotted streets of San Francisco the other day and happened upon this man. His name is Zach Houston and he’s a street poet. He sat on a small fold-out chair with a tired, old but still functioning ribbon type writer on his lap. On his worn black satchel that was propped up next to him was a plain white paper with a note that read something like “Your idea, my poem, your price…”
Unique…niche market is what I thought. I hung around some and watched what he did. People were coming up to him, and giving him a random topic like “My kids, my lover, The City etc…” and with minimal effort and inside information, Zach proceeded to generate witty, sometimes rhymed sometimes non-rhymed poems. And they were all good!
I felt like we shared much in common…going out into the streets with nothing but our tools, our guts and determination…Zach with his typewriter and me with my camera and 50mm…with each person that approached him, he found new inspiration to write a poem for them…much like with each turn around the corner, there can be inspiration to shoot a scene that tells a story…it was amazing to watch this guy humbly produce piece after piece, each a different poetic snapshot of his current encounter with someone’s ideas, and shared experiences of their life…Yes, I felt we had much in common.
While he produced a poem I asked him to write about my wife, I walked behind him and took this shot. I sent it to him as a token of my appreciation for his time out there, using his obvious education and creative energies to inspire the people around him…something I think we as artists all aspire to do.
{ 3 comments }
Where do children fit into the realm of street photography today?
Indeed, I think they fit, but the real question is “how?” and “where?” they fit…
I was browsing some street photography groups on Flickr the other day and noticed that a few had rules which prohibited pictures of homeless people and children. Most of these groups said things like “they deserve more privacy or respect than the average subject on the street.” My first response was, “Huh???” Anyone that views my work will see how I feel about taking shots of homeless people, because I do if the moment is right. But what about the kids out there? Our kids? My kids?
My street portfolio gets added to by the day and as I continue working on my last series from San Francisco I notice I have quite a few with children. Is that strange?…to shoot pictures of random kids on the street? Some, like the flickr groups I have mentioned, might think they deserve more privacy than others…I’m not so sure.
In the right context, I don’t necessarily think it’s wrong…Of course, it might have to do with my over 15 years of teaching small kids that makes me feel this entitlement…It’s almost like I know these anonymous kids on some level…I’m surrounded by hundreds of kids every school day…and there are far too many resemblances with my students and the kids out there on the street to mention.
I would agree though…there IS a fine line that any street shooter should not cross with children. In today’s world of creeps and pedophiles, you need to watch what and how you’re shooting children……Are the kids dressed and shown appropriately? Are they in a situation that could be seen as exploitation? Are the children “alone” in the frame or are they with their parent or an adult?…that’s MY distinction…the line I try not to cross no matter how good the shot may be. So, I always try to get a shot with the parent involved somehow…it not only covers me a bit, but can help add to the depth of the image and the story it tells…and kids tell some GREAT stories folks…ones that make us adults ponder and remember youthful moments long since passed.
I guess I tend to look at these shots from a teacher’s and father’s perspective. Most of these shots warm my insides and make me remember school situations or when my own two kids were that age. Shots of children bring out the inner-child in all of us, and help us to see the innocent sides of urban life we don’t normally see from the adults out there.
But…I have to ask myself this question too. Would I want some person taking photos of my little girl or boy in public? My knee-jerk reaction is NO WAY…but, after pondering about it for days on end I wouldn’t mind so much…especially if it’s a great picture that includes me with my kids.
I have “business” cards made up now, just in case there is a potential conflict I can walk over and hand a card to a suspicious parent and hopefully that will help smooth over any trouble that might be brewing. If it’s a great shot, they can go see it online and perhaps get a gratuitous print…or, I can delete it in front of them if they wish…I have yet to be approached by a parent or to even be seen. But…I have the cards now for these types of situations that might occur while shooting street.
Either way, it’s a very touchy subject…I recognize that to the fullest…there are way too many daily headlines about this sort of thing to ignore the potential for trouble…I certainly never follow kids around for a shot, or make a bee-line toward kids for a picture…With children it seems the shots always come to me. Of course if I were a woman, I wouldn’t have to worry about this nearly as much…plain fact.
Aside from the controversy, the reality is kids make great subjects on the street. People like Helen Levitt inspire me and help me to see what wonderful slices of life children offer photographically. Granted, Levitt shot these at a time when people were not nearly as concerned about privacy or perverts…people like her left her mark in street photography by seeing children on the street as capable, worthwhile subjects…and apparently so did we as an artistic culture.
As an interesting side note, every child at school here in CA has an area on their registration form called a “G-9″. The G-9, if checked, gives the school absolute authority and legal control over media images of their students for use with news agencies, books, online publications etc…Basically anything that endorses school. That’s very broad…and 99% of my school’s students have the G-9 checked, which tells me parents are not too wary of images of their kids being used by third parties.
This post got me thinking a lot…In the future, since the social atmosphere of street photography borders on paranoia and is especially precarious regarding photos of children, I may actually approach the parent(s) with a shot I just took and ask that I may keep it in my portfolio…I could lose some great shots that way, but as a parent and teacher, I think I would appreciate that gesture of good faith…time will tell if I have the guts to do it though.
Here are a few of my favorite candid shots from the street where children are the primary subject…I hope someday, the parents of these kids might see them, and appreciate the lovable candid moments that I witnessed from behind the lens…
From inside the BART train on the way to The City…
Click here for a larger image.
Walking by, and saw these two playing a game of Peek-a-Boo in the doorway…
Click here for a larger image.
During a Berkeley farmer’s market…
Click here for a larger image.
Same people, but the child got down for a closer look at this musician…
Click here for a larger image.
Witnessed as I walked by…little sister was upset, and big brother and Dad were trying to console…
Click here for a larger image.
A moment I would have loved to have as my own in print with my little girl…
Click here for a larger image.
A mother with daughters. The youngest playing the all too familiar “Don’t step on the cracks” game…
Click here for a larger view.
A father being chased by his little boy…a game I have played countless times with my own kids.
Click here for a larger image.
A small boy offering a street musician a tip from his parent after this man played Frere Jacques for him.
Click here for a larger image.
…the final “touches” by mother (and daughter…notice her hand) before an outdoor show in Market Square, SF…
Click here for a larger view.
Was funny to watch this kid stare down this clown with a total poker face…he was not buying the act…and the other kids were unsure as well…
Click here for a larger view
A cute moment in time where this boy was looking at me over his Dad’s shoulder while I walked behind…
Click here for a larger view.
A time when umbrellas were fun…
Click here for a larger view.
It should be noted that on a couple of these shots like “Baby Blue” I did, in fact, ask the parent if I could get the shot….they always said yes.
I’m obviously from the camp that it’s OK to take shots of children on the street, but I also think there needs to be some constraint and use of extreme caution when going in for a shot of children…they need to be with someone in the frame and it needs to be spontaneous, not hunted down like we do with adults.
After seeing some of these…how could one deny that children make great subjects on the street…many of these shots I would have loved to have of my own children had someone come to me with them…maybe someday I can make a parent’s day with a shot like these.
{ 6 comments }
